Aramco to invest $100bn in downstream projects

Saudi Aramco said its downstream investments would exceed $100 billion over the next decade, as global demand for oil rises by a quarter in the next 25 years.

According to the company’s 2013 annual review, Aramco and its subsidiaries own or have equity interest in domestic and international refineries with a total worldwide refining capacity of 4.9 million barrels per day, of which its equity share is 2.6 million barrels per day, making it the world’s sixth-largest refiner.

Aramco is also looking to grow within the petrochemicals sector with two major projects.

Growing oil demand

Aramco has a joint venture with Dow Chemical to build the $20 billion Sadara petrochemical complex in Jubail that is due to come on stream in the second half of 2015 is also expanding its petrochemical complex called PetroRabigh that it jointly owns with Sumitomo Chemical.

Khalid al-Falih, the company’s chief executive said at a petrochemicals conference in Bahrain that the investment will exceed $100 billion over the next decade alone. “As a result of both global demographic growth and rising standards of living in the developing world we see global demand for oil growing by a quarter over the next 25 years,” he said.

Falih said Aramco’s refining capacity would be between 8 million to 10 million barrels a day (bpd) in the coming years, a figure exceeding the goal cited by Aramco in 2012 of 8 million bpd.