Saudi Aramco plans to raise its spending to US$414 billion over the next 10 years, including on infrastructure and drilling, as the state oil giant moves into new businesses, executives said.
The spending plan is higher than Aramco’s projection last year of around $334bn by 2025, as the oil producer has been expanding its businesses, the company’s chief executive Amin Nasser said on Tuesday.
“We are into so many sectors now,” Mr Nasser said on the sidelines of an industry conference aimed at promoting the kingdom’s industrial base and the manufacture of a bigger share of products domestically.
Saudi Aramco’s plan includes $134bn to spend on drilling and well services and $78bn to maintain oil output potential, Nassir Al Yami, the general manager for procurement, told a conference in Dammam.
Aramco has already created a department for renewables to develop wind and solar projects and last month it signed a preliminary deal with petrochemical producer Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) to build a $20bn complex to convert crude oil to chemicals.
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Read more:
Petrochemicals add $43bn to GCC economies
Saudi Aramco and Sabic to build world's largest oil-to-chemicals plant
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The project, which the partners said would be the largest crude-to-chemicals facility in the world and the first in the kingdom, are part of the Saudi government’s effort to diversify the economy beyond exporting crude.
The kingdom’s “Vision 2030” economic reform plan aims at ending its reliance on oil and to stimulate the domestic non-oil private sector. Its centrepiece is a plan to sell up to 5 per cent of Aramco in an initial public offering (IPO) next year.
Saudi Aramco outlined a plan known as In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) two years ago, aimed at doubling the percentage of locally produced energy-related goods and services to 70 per cent of the total spent by 2021.
“Saudi Aramco is expected to spend more than 1 trillion Saudi riyals [Dh979.33bn] over the next decade. That has not changed, and we still want to see 70 per cent of those riyals being spent locally,” Mr Nasser said.
Supporting the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is a main part of the IKTVA drive and Saudi Vision 2030, which would help create over 40,000 jobs and could add around 30bn riyals to the kingdom’s annual GDP, Mr Nasser said.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) said in October it is creating a 4bn riyals “fund of funds” to support SMEs.
The specs: 2019 Infiniti QX50
Price, base: Dh138,000 (estimate)
Engine: 2.0L, turbocharged, in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 268hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque: 380Nm @ 4,400rpm
Fuel economy: 6.7L / 100km (estimate)
'THE WORST THING YOU CAN EAT'
Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.
Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines:
Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.
Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
Refrigerator dough - Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.
Creamer and margarine - Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
Day 1, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Dimuth Karunaratne had batted with plenty of pluck, and no little skill, in getting to within seven runs of a first-day century. Then, while he ran what he thought was a comfortable single to mid-on, his batting partner Dinesh Chandimal opted to stay at home. The opener was run out by the length of the pitch.
Stat of the day - 1 One six was hit on Day 1. The boundary was only breached 18 times in total over the course of the 90 overs. When it did arrive, the lone six was a thing of beauty, as Niroshan Dickwella effortlessly clipped Mohammed Amir over the square-leg boundary.
The verdict Three wickets down at lunch, on a featherbed wicket having won the toss, and Sri Lanka’s fragile confidence must have been waning. Then Karunaratne and Chandimal's alliance of precisely 100 gave them a foothold in the match. Dickwella’s free-spirited strokeplay meant the Sri Lankans were handily placed at 227 for four at the close.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km
Price: Dh133,900
On sale: now
It's Monty Python's Crashing Rocket Circus
To the theme tune of the famous zany British comedy TV show, SpaceX has shown exactly what can go wrong when you try to land a rocket.
The two minute video posted on YouTube is a compilation of crashes and explosion as the company, created by billionaire Elon Musk, refined the technique of reusable space flight.
SpaceX is able to land its rockets on land once they have completed the first stage of their mission, and is able to resuse them multiple times - a first for space flight.
But as the video, How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster, demonstrates, it was a case if you fail, try and try again.
Profile of Udrive
Date started: March 2016
Founder: Hasib Khan
Based: Dubai
Employees: 40
Amount raised (to date): $3.25m – $750,000 seed funding in 2017 and a Seed+ round of $2.5m last year. Raised $1.3m from Eureeca investors in January 2021 as part of a Series A round with a $5m target.
