The president and CEO of Aramco, Khalid Al-Falih, has defended the company’s massive expansion plans and spoken of its commitment and sense of responsibility at being the world’s largest energy supplier.
Speaking at the Saudi Aramco Management Development Seminar Dinner in the US capital Washington, DC, Al-Falih reinforced the need to keep investing in the oil and gas industry.
“Some people ask us why we continue with these projects even in a challenging business environment and at a time when oil consumption has fallen for two consecutive years, for the first time in 25 years,” Al-Falih said.
“Certainly we are well aware of the state of the global economy, and have felt the impact of the present downturn along with the rest of the petroleum industry.”
“But we are investing throughout the business cycle, consistent with our long-term focus,” he added.
Al-Falih said that as the global economy rebounds, demand for petroleum will also grow and without further investment the “vicious cycle of price spikes” will return.
The Aramco CEO also talked about the completion of the US$10 billion Khurais oilfield project which will add a further 1.2 million barrels per day of oil to Saudi Arabia’s output capacity.
“Just a few weeks from now we will attain our goal of putting in place a 12 million-barrel-per-day crude oil production capacity, once we complete our Khurais oil field program,” Al-Falih said.
“This massive project, the largest single crude oil increment ever commissioned, will be capable of producing as much oil as the entire State of Texas,” he added.
Al-Falih also mentioned Aramco’s massive refinery expansion plans, telling the assembled guests that the company will account for more than half of the grassroots crude oil production capacity brought onstream worldwide during the current decade.
”Saudi Aramco is behind one out of every three barrels of firm commitments to new refinery capacity to be built between now and the year 2015,” Al-Falih said.
It is believed that Saudi Aramco has $60 billion to invest on a number of new oil and gas projects in the next five years. The company is also committed to increasing daily oil production to 12.5 million barrels per day (bpd) and doubling its refining capacity to 6 million bpd.
However, due to the current financial climate it is not quite all systems go. Aramco has delayed a number of projects, including the offshore US$9 billion Manifa oilfield project. Reasons for the delays include the low oil price, a strategic move to take advantage of the current low cost of raw materials and to fall in line with agreed OPEC production cuts.
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