Saudi Aramco is reportedly planning to spend between $70bn and $80bn on acquisitions and investments abroad over the next five years, according to Bloomberg.
The investment is part of Aramco’s goal to invest $150bn at home and overseas through 2019, people familiar with the matter told the business news site, adding that the company is looking at Asia, particularly China and Korea to spend the money.
The plans tie in with Saudi Aramco’s ambition to become the world’s largest crude oil, petrochemical and chemicals producer.
Part of this ambition is to expand market share in Asia and boost economic ties with China, South Korea and Japan, where Aramco has invested heavily in a number of refineries.
Saudi Arabia has a total worldwide refining capacity of almost 4.5m bpd making the company one of world’s top refiners.
It currently owns a $2bn share in S-Oil Corp., South Korea’s third-largest oil refiner and has joint-ventures and refining businesses in China, South Korea and Japan.
Aramco is also part of a group of companies building a processing plant in China and together with Asia’s biggest refiner is looking to build another plant in Fujian province.
In 2007, Aramco partnered with China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) and ExxonMobil China Petroleum & Petrochemical Company and set up Fujian Refining & Petrochemical Co. Ltd., a refining and petrochemical producer with 12m tonnes of annual capacity, and Sinopec SenMei (Fujian) Petroleum Company, a processed oil trader with more than 1,000 gas stations in Fujian.
In March this year, Aramco secured a $10bn loan that according to reports could be used for potential acquisitions, in particular to fund a bid for stake in German synthetic rubber firm Lanxess.
Aramco has also placed a bid to buy the 46% of Dubai-based independent Dragon Oil on the back of increased M&A activity due to the fall in oil price.
