National oil giant Saudi Aramco expects a huge ship repair and shipbuilding complex that it is developing at Ras al-Khair on the Kingdom’s east coast to be fully operational by 2021, Chief Executive Amin Nasser said, Downstream Today reported.

The first part of the shipbuilding complex will be ready by 2018, and it will eventually make oil rigs and tankers, Nasser told reporters during a rare media visit to company facilities in Dhahran, Zawya wrote.

A presentation by the company showed the complex would create 80,000 jobs and allow Saudi Arabia to reduce its imports by $12b, while increasing the country’s gross domestic product by $17b.

Meanwhile, Aramco wants to expand globally and is looking at potential joint ventures in several countries, including Indonesia, India, the US, Vietnam and China, Nasser said. “We are looking at the current market status that, even though challenging, is an excellent opportunity for growth,” he told reporters during a rare media visit to company facilities in Dhahran.

The company is continuing to build its oil production and refining capacity, and its Shaybah oilfield is expected to reach output capacity of 1mbp/d “in a couple of weeks”, Nasser added.

Aramco has been working to boost Shaybah’s capacity by 250,000 bpd to rebalance its crude oil quality and help compensate for the maturing of other fields.