Saudi Aramco Looks To Bolster Gas Business Through Joint-Ventures

Saudi Arabia’s oil giant Aramco, which has an ambitious plan to grow its natural gas business, is in talks with many partners for a potential joint venture or partnership, in order to grow its international gas position, Saudi Aramco’s chief executive Amin Nasser said on Thursday.

“For the time being we are looking at potential JV or partnership,” Reuters quoted Nasser as saying in Riyadh today.

Aramco has already sold its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo from Singapore, the firm’s chief executive added. 

In January this year, Nasser told Reuters in an interview that the oil firm was looking to spend billions of U.S. dollars on natural gas acquisitions in the United States as part of Aramco’s strategy to bolster its gas business and become a global natural gas player.

At the end of February, Nasser said that Saudi Arabia aims to export as much as 3 billion cubic feet of gas per day by 2030 as part of its goal to boost the international footprint of its natural gas business.

Aramco will solely develop Saudi Arabia’s conventional and unconventional gas reserves, and the options for exports include exports via pipelines and LNG, according to Aramco’s top manager.

In November 2018, Nasser said that Aramco, already a top global oil producer but not as strong in gas production, will boost efforts to grow its natural gas output, from both conventional and unconventional reserves.

Saudi Aramco’s gas development program is expected to attract as much as US$150 billion in investments over the next decade, Nasser said. Natural gas production is expected to jump to 23 billion standard cubic feet a day from the current 14 billion cubic feet a day, Aramco’s top executive said in Dubai a few months ago.

“We also have world-class unconventional gas resources that are rapidly supplementing our large conventional resources. Because a significant proportion of this unconventional gas is rich in both liquids and ethane, its production will play an important role in the further growth of the Kingdom’s chemicals sector,” Nasser said.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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