Saudi Aramco’s plans to be the world’s biggest oil consumer
The world’s top crude exporter will use new facilities in the kingdom and elsewhere, ‘making it the biggest refiner in the world by some margin’
Dubai — Saudi Aramco is well known as the world’s top crude oil exporter. If all goes to plan, it may also become the biggest user of the fossil fuel. More than a third of Aramco’s oil is currently fed into its fully owned and joint-venture refineries, according to its bond prospectus. The company plans to double its refining network to handle as much as 10-million barrels per day (bpd) by 2030, locking in a friendly buyer for the kingdom’s crude. Aramco’s “goal is to provide a reliable destination for its future oil production”, said John Stewart, an analyst at consultant Wood Mackenzie. The expansion “would make it the biggest refiner in the world by some margin”. Saudi Arabia is leaning on Aramco’s coffers to build its sovereign wealth fund and help develop new industries that can break the kingdom’s reliance on oil. For its part, Aramco is trying to wring more profit from the crude it pumps by turning it into petrol and diesel as well as plastics and other materials used in con...
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