Saudi Aramco is stepping up its planned capital expenditure to record levels this year, and is guiding for further increases through the first half of the decade. Some two thirds of this year’s $40-50bn planned capex is earmarked for the upstream sector, with Aramco working to boost gas production by 50% by 2030 (MEES, 25 March) and add 1mn b/d of crude oil production capacity by 2027.
Amid growing concerns over global spare capacity – exacerbated by the potential for large losses of Russian output – international focus on Aramco’s expansion plans is growing. Longstanding concerns that industry investment shortfalls were seeding a future supply crunch are now being realized, and Aramco and its Abu Dhabi counterpart Adnoc are rare instances of firms bucking this trend. (CONTINUED - 797 WORDS)
