In a bid to diversify Saudi economic sources, Saudi Aramco plans to expand its activities of refining crude oil, manufacturing petrochemicals and value-added products.
The company aims to maintain its production capacity at a maximum of 12 million bpd by early 2009. Petrochemical joint venture projects are being planned in China, Korea, United States, Philippines, Japan and Saudi Arabia. The commissioning of all the new projects will catapult Saudi Aramco as one of the top manufacturers of polyolefin in the world.
Saudi Aramco has adopted a two-pronged approach :
On the domestic front, the company has cooperated in Joint Ventures with giant multinationals - the PetroRabigh project with Sumitomo Chemical, and an MOU with Dow Chemicals to set up a refinery complex and integrated petrochemical materials at Ras Tanura.
On the international front, Saudi Aramco plans to increase production capacity of the S-Oil Petrochemical Company in South Korea, embark on a joint venture for the expansion of Petron in the Philippines and the expansion of Port Arthur refinery facility in the United States. Aramco also intends to cooperate with Sinopec and ExxonMobil to launch more international projects.
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