Saudi Aramco Plans Expansion to Meet Growing Worldwide Demand

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Khalid A. Al-Falih, the president and chief executive officer of Saudi Aramco, unveiled the Aramco expansion plan in April. The plan is structured to meet Saudi local demand and put company production in line with a projected growth in oil demand worldwide.

Al-Falih said that total Saudi domestic energy demand is expected to increase from about 3.4 million barrels per day (BBL/d) of oil equivalent in 2009 to about 8.3 million BBL/d of oil equivalent in 2028. Meanwhile, global oil demand will increase from about 86 million BBL/d to 105 million to 110 million BBL/d by 2030. Thus, Aramco recently completed an upstream expansion program that brought oil production capacity to 12 million BBL/d, with a spare capacity of roughly 4 million BBL/d.

Al-Falih mentioned that Aramco's raw gas production capacity, which is currently at 10.2 billion standard cubic feet per day, will be expanded to 15.5 billion standard cubic feet per day by 2015, by starting up gas increments at Khursaniyah (1 billion standard cubic feet per day in 2010), Karan (1.8 billion standard cubic feet per day in stages from 2011-13) and the Waist Gas Plant (2.5 billion standard cubic feet per day in 2014). Accordingly, Aramco's sales gas production potential will increase from 7 billion to 9.3 billion standard cubic feet per day. Meanwhile, the world-scale production of natural gas liquids will grow from 937,000 BBL/d in 2010 to about 1.2 million BBL/d in 2015.

For petrochemicals products, such ethane, Al-Falih said that it is a highly valuable feedstock and will be increased from 800 million cubic feet per day to 1.2 billion standard cubic feet per day.

Al-Falih said Aramco's refining capacity around the globe currently totals 3.7 million BBL/d, including three new grassroot refineries at Jubail, Yanbu and Jazan that are under development, and a large expansion at Port Arthur in the United States, which will increase the refining capacity about 1.5 million BBL/d.

In June this year, Saudi Aramco and Japan's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy signed an in-principle agreement for a joint project to utilize crude oil storage facilities in Okinawa, with a starting volume of approximately 3.8 million barrels, or 600,000 kiloliters, according to an Aramco press release.

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