term interests. In Saudi Arabia, we face similar challenges in our upstream and downstream oil and gas investment plans. Over the next five years, our total oil and gas upstream and downstream investment programs will total some $70 billion, and are based on certain market outlook and national priorities. The key considerations guiding our capacity expansion plans include the assessment of market demand for our oil, our national development objectives, the profitability of various available oil development opportunities, and oil field and reservoir factors. A key tenet of our capacity development and utilization strategy is to ensure balanced markets at all times, which requires the maintenance of sufficient excess capacity to appropriately respond to unforeseen supply disruptions and to ease potential bottlenecks. This capacity cushion has been instrumental in keeping the market well supplied and balanced through a range of demand surges and supply interruptions experienced over the past many decades. --More
