MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco’s president and CEO, Amin H. Nasser, is calling for a new era of industrial diversification, anchored by specialty chemicals, according to a transcript of his remarks made this week at the fourth Saudi Downstream Forum, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
This diversification would be underpinned by a widespread and rapid domestic expansion of small to medium enterprises that produce high-value finished and semi-finished products in the petrochemicals conversion sector, Nasser said.
This approach will unlock opportunities for Saudi Arabia's economic diversification, job creation and innovation potential, and create a world-leading downstream industry, the CEO said at the event in Jubail.
With most of the country's petrochemicals presently being exported as commodities, major opportunities exist to add value by turning them into high-value, semi-finished and finished products, the CEO said. Diversification into specialty chemicals is expected to increase returns from the current level of about $500/ton to about $2,000/ton by 2040, according to Aramco officials.
Nasser said that Saudi Aramco’s vision for the creation of a world-leading downstream sector in Saudi Arabia is built on four key drivers: maximizing value for the Kingdom’s crude oil production, including vertical and horizontal integration across the hydrocarbon chain; enabling the creation of conversion industries that produce semi-finished and finished goods to diversify the economy; developing advanced technologies and innovation; and, enabling the Kingdom’s sustainable development.
Saudi Aramco says its strategy is to strike a better balance between its unparalleled upstream capacity of 12 million bpd of crude oil and its current refining capacity of 5.4 million bpd of crude oil for in-Kingdom and worldwide. Saudi Aramco has a plan to raise its total global refining capacity throughput to between 8 to 10 million bpd in the future.
Saudi Aramco is also collaborating with the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, and the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority to build value parks and locate service providers adjacent to petrochemical facilities, such as Rabigh PlusTech Park at Petro Rabigh on the west coast and the PlasChem Park adjoining Sadara in Jubail Industrial City 2.
As MRC informed earlier, SPIE Oil & Gas Services, the consortium of Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical, has been awarded a contract for the Petro Rabigh II project. This contract, awarded to SPIE Oil & Gas Services Saudi LLC, a subsidiary of SPIE Oil & Gas Services, is a comprehensive offer for the commissioning and start-up of Units Naphtha, Aromatics and Cumene Phenol and utilities for of the Petro Rabigh refining and petrochemical complex in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco's value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world's most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
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