Saudi Arabia: Aramco Focused on Downstream and Gas, Not Oil, Expansion
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Tuesday, 22 November 2011 |
Aramco CEO Khalid al-Falih (pictured) has revealed that the company is focused on developing its gas reserved and downstream oil operations rather than expanding crude production. "Given the increased availability and distribution of oil reserves, I think there was pressure on the kingdom and on Saudi Arabia to raise production beyond the needs of Saudi Arabia. That pressure I would see is substantially reduced," said al-Falih, speaking at an energy event in Riyadh.
"Our focus is to invest heavily in gas, in downstream, in refining and, something that is new to Aramco, in chemicals," he revealed, arguing that this would give Saudi Aramco a global footprint. He added that current projects being undertaking in China, South Korea and domestically "are equal to and sometimes eclipse what we are doing in the upstream.”
While Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister, Ali Naimi, has said that Saudi Arabia could boost its crude production from 12.5m bpd to 15m bpd, al-Falih’s comments appear to indicate that the state-owned company does not plan to take this course of action. Instead, its upstream focus is on conventional gas and shale gas resources, where it plans to drill a number of wells to conduct preliminary tests.
PetrolWorld 22112011
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