Falih, Saudi Arabia also has some very ambitious stretch goals to grow and diversify its economy and Saudi Aramco's role is to leverage the Kingdom's hydrocarbon reserves to benefit its people and expand its economy. "Over the next five years, in fact, Saudi Aramco will be investing some $80 billion in these programs - unprecedented in our company's history, and possibly the history of our industry," he said. "Our slate of mega projects will also enable Saudi Aramco to maintain a spare production capacity of at least 1.5 to two million barrels per day above and beyond actual production, in keeping with the Kingdom's commitment to stable world markets", Al-Falih explained. " "Maintaining that spare capacity is not easy nor is it cheap, but its value has been proven repeatedly over recent years, whenever we tapped this capacity to make up for supply disruptions or shortfalls from other producers," he said. He also drew attention to the fact that the company would be boosting the production of natural gas and expanding the Master Gas System to meet growing domestic demand from utilities and industries. Saudi Arabia is already one of the world's largest per capita consumers of gas, and this fuel and feedstock is vital to continued economic development and diversification in the Kingdom. Moving to the oil downstream, the senior vice president cited various initiatives to help the industry, including partnering with foreign investors to build two new export-oriented refineries in the Kingdom and working with overseas joint-venture partners in North America and Asia to expand refining capacities in those markets, through a mix of expansion projects and new grassroots facilities. In all, the company is involved in refinery projects with a total capacity of two million barrels per day. Even further downstream, Saudi Aramco has entered a $10 billion joint venture with Sumitomo Chemical to develop the existing west coast Rabigh Refinery into an integrated refining and petrochemical complex and is exploring similar opportunities involving integrated refining and petrochemical complexes in Ras Tanura and Yanbu', again in conjunction with leading chemical firms Al-Falih said that "The buzz of activity in the Kingdom's petrochemical sector, however, also encompasses the flourishing industries led by the private sector and supplied by Saudi Aramco with fuel and feedstock." As a result, direct investment in the petrochemical industry in the next five years will total nearly 70 billion dollars. This will create many more jobs per dollar of capital than is the case with the production of basic chemicals, and vastly increase the value added to the Kingdom's economy. The senior vice president expressed confidence that as the Kingdom continues its efforts to leverage the nation's energy resources to strengthen and diversify its economy, there is a growing number of attractive opportunities for foreign direct investment. Aside from direct participation in upstream gas and downstream projects, there are an even greater array of opportunities related to project engineering and construction, oilfield services and manufacturing activities related to plastics, resins, carbon fibers, other petrochemical derivatives and energy intensive manufacturing ventures. At Saudi Aramco, strategies have always incorporated both the near-term and long-term benefits of development projects, given the massive size of the company's resource base. "After all, the last drop of oil produced in the world will be produced in the Kingdom, but between now and then, there is well over a century's worth of economic growth and diversification to be fueled by our petroleum resources, and we encourage foreign investors to also adopt a similar long-term strategic approach to their Saudi investment portfolios," Al-Falih said. --MORE
