Nov 22 2011 |
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Saudi Aramco CEO: Focus On Gas Investment, Not Oil Expansion
Tuesday, Nov 22, 2011
(This item was originally published Monday.)
RIYADH (Dow Jones)--State-giant Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Saudi Aramco , is focusing on investing heavily in gas more than increasing its oil production, its chief executive Khalid al-Falih said Monday.
The kingdom was previously facing a pressure to increase its oil output, but that pressure is "substantially reduced," he told a conference in Riyadh.
"Our focus is to invest heavily in gas, in downstream, in refining and--something that is new to Aramco--in chemicals," he said.
"There is no reason for Saudi Aramco to pursue 15 million barrels [of capacity]," he said. "It is difficult to see [an increase in capacity] because there are too many variables happening...market demand is addressed by others."
Aramco is currently producing about 9 million barrels of oil a day, having raised output sharply earlier this year to make up for lost output from Libya. Its current output capacity is 12 million barrels a day, though the kingdom as a whole could produce 12.5 million barrels a day if output from the so-called Neutral Zone, shared with Kuwait, is taken into account.
Monday, al-Falih said that Aramco has a number of projects that "we can either bring in to offset decline...or we can bring in if we are asked to increase capacity.
"It wouldn't make sense today [to increase capacity]," he said.
Aramco has no plans to consider to increase the output capacity of its Manifa oil field, which has capacity to produce 900,000 barrels a day, until it has been in production for a while.
-By Summer Said, Dow Jones Newswires; +966-546-842373; summer.said@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
22-11-11 0405GMT
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