Saudi Aramco eyes chemicals growth

Saudi Aramco plans to boost investments in refining and petrochemicals to secure new markets for its crude, and sees growth in chemicals as central to its downstream strategy to lessen the risk of a slowdown in oil demand.

Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer, is expanding its footprint globally by signing downstream deals and boosting the capacity of its plants, ahead of an initial public offering in 2019, the largest to date.

The firm was moving ahead with multibillion-dollar projects in China, India and Malaysia and aims to finalise new partnerships in 2018, Abdulaziz alJudaimi, Aramco’s senior vicepresident for downstream, said.

Aramco planned to raise its refining capacity to between 8-million and 10-million barrels per day (bpd), from about 5-million, and double its petrochemicals production by 2030, he said.

Aramco pumps about 10million bpd of crude oil.

“Our strategy is very simple. We want to be at 8- to 10-million barrels per day of participated [refining] capacity ... [and] we are going forward by trying to be a top leader in chemicals by 2040,” Judaimi said.

“The market that we want to grow in ... has to be growing, a strong market, with good demand and of course these assets have to be integrated to the whole value chain of the downstream,” he said.

To help it reach these targets, Aramco has entered a 50% joint venture with three Indian refiners to build a $44bn, 1.2-million bpd refinery integrated with petrochemical facilities in India.

Aramco has said it may introduce a strategic partner to share its 50% stake in the Indian refining venture.