Saudi Aramco: Strategy Appropriate for your Organization

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Saudi Aramco, owned by the Saudi Arabian Government, is a fully-integrated, global petroleum enterprise, and a world leader in exploration and producing, refining, distribution, shipping and marketing.

The company manages proven reserves of 260 billion barrels of oil (a quarter of the world's total), the largest to any company in the world, and manages the fourth-largest gas reserves in the world. Saudi Aramco owns and operates the world's second largest tanker fleet to help transport its crude oil production, which amounted to 3.15 billion barrels in 2004. In addition to its headquarters in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province city of Dhahran, Saudi Aramco has affiliates, joint venture and subsidiary office in China, Egypt, Greece, Japan, Netherlands, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States. Saudi Aramco's chairman of the board of directors is His Excellency Ali I. Al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources. The company's president and CEO is Abdallah S. Jum'ah.
Saudi Aramco is one of the major players in key oil products and petrochemical markets, driven by commercial and national interests

Strategies:
? Take a lead to help overcome product demand
? We will continue optimizing our downstream portfolio
? Grow our downstream business by selective partnering

Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil company, is reviewing some of its long-term projects following the sharp decline in oil prices and a dramatic slowdown in demand growth for crude, a senior official said on Tuesday.

The official did not elaborate on details of the review process, saying no firm decisions had been made. It was also unclear whether the review could result in a decision to slow down the development of some of the kingdom's projects or simply a renegotiation of contracts with service companies.

Aramco, the biggest oil company by production, was estimated to be spending $129bn (?100bn, £80bn) on its energy expansion plan, and its decision to review projects is another illustration of how the oil-rich Gulf is being affected by the global slowdown.

Only five months ago, Saudi Arabia said it would add an additional 2.5m barrels of capacity, on top of the 12.5m, if needed, at a hastily convened conference of producers and consumers in Jeddah. as oil producers came under intense western pressure to raise output in an attempt to stem the rise of oil prices.

Saudi Aramco is the world's largest oil company by production and reserves, manages more than 100 oil and gas fields in the kingdom and is a vital international energy provider.

The company's global role was emphasized in a new board of directors appointed in September, 2007.

The reformed board now includes James Kinnear, former Texaco president and CEO, Mark Moody-Stuart, former chairman of Royal Dutch Shell Group, in addition to Peter Woicke, former World Bank MD and executive VP of the International Finance Corporation, the bank's private sector development affiliate.

The company is expected to spend more than $90bn on projects and infrastructure over the next four years and has recently drawn up an exclusive list of 27 selected Saudi and international construction and engineering firms to compete for the contracts due to be awarded.

According to Aramco officials, even after seven decades of large-scale commercial production only 28% of the kingdom's proven reserves have been depleted. Estimates point to recoverable oil of 200 billion barrels, enough to last, at last year's average production level, for more than 100 years, they say. Saudi Aramco is already engaged in the most aggressive expansion of oil drilling activity undertaken anywhere in the world. This has seen the company's drilling rigs more than double to 130 in less than three years. In the near term, Aramco is aiming for total output capacity of 12.5 million b/d by the end of 2009, including the neutral zone it shares with Kuwait. This involves an addition of 2.95 million b/d of oil production from the Khursaniyah, Shaybah, Nuayyim, Khurais and Manifa fields. The $11bn offshore Manifa programme, the largest offshore field development ever undertaken by Aramco is due to be finished by 2011 and is expected to yield 900,000 barrels-a-day of heavy crude oil.

In order to find markets for its heavy oil reserves, Saudi Oil and Mineral Resources Minister Ali al-Naimi has said that the kingdom intends to almost double oil refining capacity in and outside the country to around 6 million b/d by 2013. New combined petrochemicals and oil refining complexes are being built at Rabigh in conjunction with Japan's Sumitomo and at Ras Tanura with the US Dow Chemical Company. A further complex is planned for Yanbu. Aramco also has a 25% stake in a 240,000 b/d refinery venture in China's Fujian province which will chiefly draw on Saudi heavy crude to produce gasoline and petrochemicals. Chinese state-owned oil company, Sinopec, is also discussing a second joint venture refinery venture with Aramco in China's eastern Shandong province. A $5bn refinery investment has been mooted on Mindanao Island in the ...