Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Aramco plans to invest a total of about $334b by 2025 on infrastructure and projects to maintain oil potentials, reported Reuters.
Aramco’s Vice President for Procurement and Supply Chain Management, Abdulaziz al-Abdulkarim, stated that the figure included spending on exploring and developing unconventional resources, such as shale gas, according to Al Arabya. Abdulkarim said that the investments are planned over the course of 10 year. He added: “you talk about pipelines, you talk about bulk plants, you talk about power plants, there is a lot of investment, of course upstream facilities whether it’s oil or gas.”
An estimated 70% of the investment amount will be spent on local saudi services and materials, as part of the company’s In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) program. Aramco has already started its local expenditure, as reported by Egypt Oil&Gas earlier, with the company awarding Saudi KAD four lucrative procurement and construction contracts (EPC) to build pipelines with investments projected at $1.33b. Furthermore, Aramco plans to develop an energy industrial city between Al Ahsa and Dammam which includes manufacturing oil and gas equipment and drilling centres for Aramco, as well as creating around 500,000 direct and indirect jobs for Saudi nationals.
The local sourcing target comes at a time of significant financial stress in Saudi Arabia, as the Gulf’s largest economy adjusts to lower oil prices and reduced state spending and economic growth.
