Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali I. Al-Naimi has highlighted Saudi Arabia's oil and gas investment outlook and strategies. He disclosed the future outlook and strategies in a speech on September 12 at the third International Seminar of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at Vienna's Hofburg Palace. After discussing the evolving global energy scene, Al-Naimi stressed that the Middle East continues to play a central role in satisfying global growth in demand, production and trade. Al-Naimi went on to say that while the world's attention is focused primarily on crude-oil production capacity, meeting global demand also requires timely investment along the entire oil and gas value chains. He added: "The industry must deal with a stretched refining system and match refining capacity to the anticipated future slate of crude oil that is becoming heavier and more sour, as well as attend to the infrastructure bottlenecks in pipelines, terminals, shipping and critical sea channels." Al-Naimi noted that Saudi Arabia's oil and gas upstream and downstream investment programs will total some $70 billion over the next five years, according to a report carried by Saudi Aramco's website. --MORE
