Amin H Nasser, president and CEO of Saudi Aramco
Aramco’s upstream comes into focus
Saudi heavyweight must achieve ambitious government pledge despite revenues feeling the squeeze
The Saudi energy ministry’s directive for state-owned Saudi Aramco to increase its maximum sustainable capacity (MSC) by 1mn bl/d to 13mn bl/d will be a challenge for the company given financial pressures and competing upstream priorities. The immediate trigger for the directive, issued on 11 March, was the price war launched just days earlier when Opec+ talks failed to prolong production cuts. The economic backdrop was further weakened by the Covid-19 pandemic. Aramco did not disclose a timeframe for bringing the additional capacity online or say where it would come from. But the company began by digging into existing spare capacity and inventories to raise output by roughly 2.5mn bl/d to
Also in this section
10 March 2026
Eni’s director for global gas and LNG portfolio, Cristian Signoretto, discusses how demand will respond to rising LNG supply, and how the company is expanding its own gas and LNG operations through disciplined, capital-efficient investments
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!
