Saudi Arabia\u2019s state oil company Aramco has revived discussions to build a multi-billion dollar refining and petrochemicals complex in China, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.
\nAramco is holding preliminary negotiations about a facility in the Northeastern province of Liaoning with partners including Norinco, a state-owned defense contractor, said the people.<\/p>\n
Talks over what was meant to be a $10 billion venture were suspended in 2020 as oil crashed at the start of the pandemic. Now, with crude approaching $100 a barrel, Aramco\u2019s finances have been transformed, freeing up money for investment in its biggest export market.<\/p>\n
China and Saudi Arabia\u2019s ties have strengthened as Beijing\u2019s need for oil has grown along with its economy. The kingdom was the biggest supplier of crude to China last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
\nAs part of the Chinese refinery plan, Aramco is negotiating terms that could include its trading unit providing crude to the venture, said two of the people. Aramco Trading Co. purchases and sells oil from Saudi Arabia and other countries.
\nAn agreement is not imminent and it\u2019s still unclear how much of the original plan still stands, said the people.
\nAramco didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment. Calls to a Norinco spokesman\u2019s office after business hours weren\u2019t answered. An email to a spokesman and the general address of the company wasn\u2019t immediately answered.<\/p>\n
Downstream Expansion<\/p>\n
Aramco and Norinco signed a framework agreement in 2017 to construct a refinery capable of handling 300,000 barrel per day of crude. They were also meant to build a 1.5-million-ton-per-year ethylene plant.<\/p>\n
Saudi Aramco cut spending and shelved several projects in 2020 to protect its $75 billion annual dividend, the world\u2019s biggest. Its cashflow has jumped this year and rose above its quarterly dividend in the second and third quarters.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s downstream business, which includes chemicals subsidiary Sabic, swung to a profit as margins for refined fuel climbed. The unit — which includes refineries, retail operations, trading and Sabic — made a $4 billion profit before interest and tax in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Aramco aims to roughly double its global refining network to handle as much as 10 million barrels a day by 2030. It was mulling a $15 billion investment in Reliance Industries Ltd.\u2019s oil-to-chemicals unit in India, but the plan was scrapped late last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saudi Arabia\u2019s state oil company Aramco has revived discussions to build a multi-billion dollar refining and petrochemicals complex in China, according to several people with knowledge of the matter. Aramco is holding…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[46,48,57,68,76,77,82,86,87,90,96,99,103,107,109,111,113,137,139,146,148,160,174,183,184,201,202,209,222,230,232,233,244,246,249,256,262,263,267,277,279,280,285,288],"class_list":["post-5911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oil-gas","tag-aramco","tag-athens","tag-baroudi","tag-carbon","tag-climate","tag-climate-change","tag-co2","tag-cyprus","tag-decarbonising","tag-democracy","tag-doha","tag-eastmed","tag-egypt","tag-embargo","tag-emissions","tag-energy","tag-energy-peace","tag-gas","tag-gazprom","tag-greece","tag-greenenergy","tag-international-maritime-disputes","tag-lebanon","tag-maritime-boundaries-east-mediterranean","tag-maritime-disputes","tag-offshore","tag-oil","tag-opec","tag-pollution","tag-poverty-alleviation","tag-putin","tag-qatar","tag-rosneft","tag-roudi","tag-russia","tag-saudi","tag-solar","tag-solar-power","tag-straddling-hydrocarbons-reserves","tag-total","tag-trump","tag-turkey","tag-unclos","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}