Amin Nasser, the chief executive of Saudi Aramco, stated on Sunday that the oil giant was exploring additional investment options in China, where he claimed there was a strong and expanding need for oil.

State-owned Aramco has been expanding its business in China through a series of refining and petrochemical partnerships, some of which include arrangements for the offtake of crude.

During a conference call with the media, Nasser stated, “As of now, we are in the early part of 2024, demand is healthy and growing in China.” This was in response to the news that the net profit had dropped 24.7% to $121.3 billion due to lower oil prices.

According to Nasser, Aramco was currently searching for additional investment opportunities, and the nation’s refineries had some of the greatest conversion rates and were among the most fully integrated.

Nasser anticipated that the world oil market will continue to be robust in 2024.

“We expect it to be fairly robust, we are looking at growth of about 1.5 million barrels,” Nasser stated.

Compared to an average of 102.4 million barrels in 2023, Nasser estimated that demand for 2024 would be 104 million barrels per day.

Late in January, the Saudi government gave Aramco the order to abandon its plan to increase production capacity to 13 million barrels per day (mbpd) and go back to the original 12 mbpd goal.

Three of the expansion plan’s projects are still in progress, while Safaniyah and Manifa have been shelved. Zuluf, Marjan, and Berri are anticipated to contribute 600,000, 300,000, and 250,000 barrels of crude production per day, respectively.

Despite the ongoing developments, Nasser stated that maximum production capacity would be optimised to keep it within the 12 million bpd objective.

“I’ll handle that by reducing our loss and counteracting it with the addition that Zuluf, Marjan, and Berri will bring. That shouldn’t have an effect on how many rigs we have out in the field.”

Higher overseas and offshore oil exploration and production, mostly in the Middle East and Africa, had largely helped oilfield firms ride out slowing drilling activity by U.S. shale producers. This decision on the capacity target sent shares of U.S. oilfield services providers plunging.

By 2030, Aramco wants to increase its gas production from 2021 levels by 60%.

After deciding to acquire a strategic minority position in MidOcean last year, Nasser stated that Aramco may collaborate with the American investment firm EIG Partners to fund LNG projects outside of Australia.

“We are partnering with MidOcean in Australia and we might partner with them in other enclaves depending on the opportunities,” he stated.

Aramco was interested in investing in LNG potential in the United States, according to Nasser, but he was unable to provide any further information.

“We are in discussion with a number of companies.”

The world’s top exporter of LNG is the United States, and the business is booming globally.

Aramco is reportedly in talks to invest in phase 2 of Sempra Infrastructure’s Port Arthur LNG project in Texas, which is a potential expansion of the first phase that is now producing, according to reports last week that cited information from sources.

As for a partnership with China’s Geely and French automaker Renault for a 15% to 20% share in their joint venture for combustion and hybrid engines, talks are still underway, according to Nasser.

Additionally, Nasser stated that Aramco was now assessing the lithium content of its oilfield brine.

Aramco was reportedly in the early phases of working on lithium extraction, which is considered essential by many major economies because to its use in the production of batteries, according to sources from last week.

“This is a work in progress,” Nasser said.

(Adapted from MillenniumPost.com)