BAKU (Azerbaijan), May 17 (Bernama) -- The national oil company of Saudi Arabia 'Aramco' intends to implement a major project for the development of oil fields in the Red Sea, Azerbaijan's TREND news agency quoted local media report on Thursday.

The Aramco Company intends to invest US$25 billion in this project. The first deep-water well in the Red Sea will be drilled by late this year.

Exploration of hydrocarbons on these fields has been carried out since 2009 and, according to the preliminary data, oil reserves are estimated here at 100 billion barrels.

The TV channel also reported that this project is the largest oil project implemented by Aramco.

Earlier, Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali al-Naimi said that in April, the country increased its oil production up to 10 million barrels per day compared to 9.9 million barrels in March which is a record figure in recent years.

Saudi Arabia is a major supplier of oil in the world market. Every month the Kingdom increases the level of oil production and exports to cover the termination of supplies from Iran.

-- BERNAMA