Oil’s decline since April is likely to inflict more pain both on Aramco and the Saudi government despite the higher oil production. Over the past five weeks, Riyadh led the OPEC+ coalition through two bigger-than-scheduled supply hikes, which together with US President Donald Trump ’s trade war, briefly crashed oil futures to a four-year low below $60 a barrel in London.
Brent crude has shed some $11 per barrel since the start of the year, most recently trading at around $64 per barrel. This is substantially lower than what Saudi Arabia needs to balance its budget in view of ambitious public spending programs. This would have to change, and soon, if prices stay this low. In the meantime, Aramco is signaling business as usual.
Aramco, Sinopec and Yasref have signed a venture framework agreement for a major expansion at the Yasref petrochemicals complex in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, the companies announced on Wednesday.
NextDecade Corporation has signed a sales and purchase agreement with a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco under which it will supply the Saudi company with LNG from Train 4 of its Rio Grande LNG facility for 20 years, NextDecade announced on Wednesday.
NextDecade Corp. has secured a 20-year, 1.2 million metric tons per annum (MMtpa) offtake from Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Aramco) for the planned fourth liquefaction train of the under-construction Rio Grande LNG project in Brownsville, Texas.
Japan’s Terra Drone has signed an MoU with Saudi Aramco to develop innovative drone, robotics and AI-driven solutions for the oil and gas sector, the company said on Thursday.
The partnership aims to enhance safety and operational efficiency while supporting Saudi Arabia’s localisation efforts. The MoU establishes a framework for collaboration in research and development, technology piloting, and workforce training, aligning with the country’s broader economic goals.
Saudi Aramco has launched Saudi Arabia’s first carbon dioxide direct air capture (DAC) test unit, the company announced on Thursday.
The pilot plant has been developed in collaboration with Siemens Energy and is designed to remove up to 12 tonnes per year (tpy) of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Aramco intends to use the facility to test carbon capture materials and develop capture methods that can lower operational costs and accelerate the deployment of DAC in the region.
Aramco Ventures, the venture capital arm of Saudi Aramco, has joined international hardware and energy investors in a seed funding round to back the direct air capture (DAC) technology developed by German firm Ucaneo, the companies announced on Tuesday.
Operations at Saudi Arabia’s Jafurah shale gas field – the country’s largest unconventional non-oil associated gas site and arguably one of the biggest outside the U.S. – will begin this year, according to a comment last week from Saudi Aramco’s president and chief executive officer, Amin Nasser.
Saudi Aramco expects the total payout to be about $85 billion in 2025, compared with $124 billion for last year, it said in a statement Tuesday. The distribution has been in focus for investors and economists alike with the level of the payment likely to determine how much more the Saudi government would need to borrow to fill its budget deficit.