Saudi Aramco is focusing on strategic overseas downstream investments
Aramco pursues downstream agenda
The Saudi titan’s renewed plans to lock in demand through downstream developments coincide with consumers seeking to guarantee supply
As fears over energy security pushed oil prices towards $100/bl in early 2022, state oil giant Saudi Aramco doubled down on its strategic overseas downstream investment. It resurrected a refining and petrochemicals project in China, with its promise of a guaranteed outlet for exports to its largest crude buyer, while the part-acquisition of a Polish refiner spoke to ambitions to secure a larger slice of the European market. And a long-term sales and offtake agreement with an aspirant Egyptian downstream developer highlighted Aramco’s increasing emphasis in these and other recent deals on maximising petrochemical conversion rates. China is both the largest single importer of Saudi oil—averagi
Also in this section
8 January 2026
Indonesia and Malaysia are at the dawn of breathtaking digital capabilities. Their energy infrastructure must keep up with their ambitions
8 January 2026
The next five years will be critical for the North Sea, and it will be policy not geology that will decide the basin’s future
8 January 2026
The region’s access to versatile feedstock, combined with policy support, is setting it up to meet growing demand both at home and abroad
7 January 2026
No longer can the energy source be considered a sidekick to oil in the Middle East and neither should it step aside for less convincing alternatives
