Oil major Saudi Aramco plans to pump $129 billion into new energy projects over the next five years as it looks to boost crude, gas, refining and petrochemical capacity, a senior official said on Sunday.
Khalid Al-Falih, executive vice president of operations, said around $59 billion of the planned investment would come from Aramco itself, while the remaining $70 billion would come from joint ventures.
The figure is close to $40 billion more than previous official spending forecasts.
“We are updating our figures all the time. This figure includes more projects,” Al-Falih told newswire Reuters.
“This includes refinery projects in the United States and China, a second phase of the Saudi-based PetroRabigh, and a giant petrochemical plant at Ras Tanura to be built by Dow Chemical.”
He said total investment would be even higher if some $65 billion worth of projects already underway were taken into account.
Speaking earlier at a conference, Al-Falih said Aramco was focused on developing and expanding its downstream operations, stating that they were “the area of greatest potential for future growth and impact”.
On soaring oil prices, which touched a fresh all-time high above $135 a barrel last week, Al-Falih said the market was being driven by speculators and not supply and demand.
“Buyers and sellers [are] taking their cues not just from production numbers, demand projections and inventory levels, but from a whole host of factors which lie beyond the realm of the petroleum industry itself,” he said.
Saudi Aramco this month celebrated its 75th anniversary, marking three-quarters of a century of oil production in the kingdom.
Now the world’s top oil exporter, the Gulf state provides over a tenth of world oil supplies.
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