Aydh also talked about several of the company's initiatives to stimulate the local economy. Starting in 2004, Saudi Aramco started a series of dialogues with business and industrial leaders to create more jobs for young Saudis and more domestically made materials for use in its operations. "It also created a New Business Development Organization that does several things from creating new opportunities for Saudi Aramco and local businesses and increasing local content in needed materials and services to commercializing company technologies through local firms and attracting foreign investment." He also described a Saudi Aramco initiative launched in 2006 to build cogeneration plants that provide steam and electricity for producing activities that also feed excess electricity back to the Kingdom's power grid. Planned joint-venture refining projects with ConocoPhilips in Yanbu‘ and Total in Jubail will add 800,000 barrels of refined product for export, he said. Meanwhile, the Petro Rabigh joint venture with Sumitomo will produce 2.4 million tons annually of polyolefins, much of which will be converted into a variety of products at an adjoining industrial park. "Saudi Aramco is currently partnering with Dow Chemical to explore the feasibility of an integrated project at Ras Tanura. One of the most complex petrochemical projects ever envisioned, it also would integrate a massive petrochemical complex and downstream conversion park with Ras Tanura Refinery and Ju‘aymah Gas Plant. In 2008, the company entered into a long-term agreement with several companies to create the STAR Fabrication Facility, which began operations in 2009. The facility makes offshore platforms and is capable of fabricating 14,000 tons of structures annually." --MORE
