January 18: Saudi Aramco formally inaugurates its new Haradh oil and natural gas facility. The Haradh plant is expected to boost Saudi natural gas production capacity by roughly 25%, most of which is slated for the domestic market. The Haradh facility also includes a gas-oil separation plant capable of processing , as well as infrastructure for delivering up to of condensates to the Kingdom's Abqaiq processing facility. Developing the country's relatively untapped natural gas potential could allow more oil to be allocated for export in the future. (Reuters, LAT, Platts) January 22: U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton approves a plan to open parts of Alaska’s North Slope to oil exploration and drilling. Nine million acres (36,000 km2) of Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve will be opened to long-term production. The site lies adjacent to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which remains closed to oil and gas drilling. (WP) February 11: OPEC delegates meeting in Algiers agree to lower the cartel's output ceiling by per day, to , effective April 1. OPEC members also urge immediate compliance with the existing OPEC ceiling, as overproduction has been estimated at . Assuming full quota compliance, the decision could remove a total of from the world market in April. (NYT, WSJ) February 19: The Royal Dutch Shell group announces that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has begun a formal investigation into the company's restatement of its oil and gas reserves. On January 9, 2004, Royal Dutch/Shell announced that it had overstated its proven oil and gas reserves by , or 20% due to overly optimistic assumptions about plans for developing its fields around the world. (NYT) February 25: Total (France) and Petronas (Malaysia) sign an estimated $2 billion agreement with the National Iranian Oil Company to build Iran's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility. The two-train facility will have a capacity of per year, with natural gas to come from Iran’s South Pars field. Production of LNG is expected to begin in 2009. Iran holds the world’s second largest natural gas reserves—after Russia—and development of LNG facilities would allow the country to export gas around the world. (WMRC) February 26: The United States rescinds a ban on travel to Libya and authorizes U.S. oil companies with pre-sanctions holdings in Libya to negotiate on their return to the country if and when the United States lifts economic sanctions. The United States first