Gulf’s oil heavyweights shop local
Aramco and Adnoc are channelling windfall oil revenues into furthering their government owners’ domestic economic development drives
NOCs Saudi Aramco and Adnoc are ramping up spending from coffers overflowing with oil revenue windfalls, frontloading investment programmes designed both to expand core upstream production and prepare their businesses to withstand the energy transition. In keeping with their owners’ national policies, the pair are also focusing efforts to ensure the proceeds from the resultant project activity boom flow back into their local economies. In late June, the Emirati heavyweight inked investment agreements worth some $5.7bn with the UAE’s domestic manufacturing sector, all aimed at serving Adnoc’s mushrooming procurement needs. A fortnight later, its Saudi counterpart said it had finalised similar
Also in this section
9 March 2026
Petroleum Economist analysis sees increases in output from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Kazakhstan among others before region’s murky descent
9 March 2026
Energy sanctions are becoming an increasingly prominent tool of US foreign policy, with the country’s growth in oil and gas production allowing it to impose pressure on rivals without jeopardising its own energy security or that of its allies, argues Matthew McManus, a visiting fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics
6 March 2026
The March 2026 issue of Petroleum Economist is out now!
6 March 2026
After Europe’s rapid buildout of floating LNG import capacity, Exmar CEO Carl-Antoine Saverys says future growth in floating gas infrastructure will increasingly be driven by developing markets as lower prices, rising energy demand and the need to replace coal unlock new opportunities for unconventional and tailor-made solutions






