Saudi Arabia's state oil company Aramco, under pressure from the West to boost output amid soaring prices, pledged on Sunday to hike investments by around 50% this year as it reported a doubling in 2021 profits, said Reuters.
The capex guidance was 25-57% higher than the USD31.9bn spent in 2021, “with further growth expected until around the middle of the decade”, Saudi Aramco said on 20 March. It noted that “substantial new investment is required to meet demand growth, against a broader decline in upstream investment across the industry globally”.
Saudi Aramco is looking at raising its crude oil maximum sustainable capacity (MSC) to 13m bbl/day by 2027, up from 12m bbl/day currently, and boosting gas production by more than 50% by 2030. Heightened supply worries have sent crude prices soaring above USD100/bbl this year amid financial sanctions imposed on Russia - the world’s second biggest crude exporter after Saudi Arabia - following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
The company’s capex in 2021 was up 18% from the previous year due to “increased activities in relation to crude oil increments, Tanajib Gas Plant and development drilling programs”, Saudi Aramco said. The Saudi energy major more than doubled its 2021 net profit to riyal (SR) 412.4bn (USD110bn), with sales up by more than 75%, on the back of strong oil prices, and improved refining and chemical margins following incorporation of petrochemical major SABIC’s results.
Aramco’s free cash flow more than doubled to USD107.5bn in 2021, with gearing ratio reduced to 14.2% from 23.0% in the previous year. Full-year 2021 cash dividend totaled $75bn, with $18.8bn declared for the fourth quarter which will be paid out in the first quarter of 2022. Aramco’s board further recommended that $4bn in retained earnings be capitalized and bonus shares be distributed to shareholders, with one bonus share granted for every 10 shares held.
As MRC informed before, in June 2020, Aramco finalized its USD69 billion acquisition of a 70% stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the Middle East's biggest petrochemical maker. SABIC reported more than a fivefold year-on-year increase in its Q3 net profit to USD1.49 billion thanks to higher average sales prices.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas.shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco's value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
mrchub.com