Aramco, the world’s most profitable energy company forecast its capital expenditure for 2023 between $45 to $55 billion in its largest spending exercise to date as it looks to increase its output capacity to 13 million b/d by 2027, the Saudi giant said in its full year financial results on March 12.
Aramco continues to execute its growth plans to promote long-term productivity of Saudi Arabia’s reservoirs. Aramco’s net income increased by 46.5% to a record $161.1 billion in 2022, compared to $110.0 billion in 2021.
“Given that we anticipate oil and gas will remain essential for the foreseeable future…Aramco has embarked on the largest capital spending program in its history,” Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said in a statement.
Aramco project updates
Aramco noted that construction and engineering activities for the Marjan and Berri crude oil increments continue to progress, and are expected to add production capacity of 300,000 barrels per day b/d and 250,000 b/d, respectively, by 2025.
The Zuluf crude oil increment is in the engineering phase, Aramco noted, and is expected to provide a central facility to process a total of 600,000 b/d of crude oil from the Zuluf field by 2026. Construction activities are also continuing on the Dammam development project, which is expected to add 25,000 b/d and 50,000 b/d of crude oil by 2024 and 2027, respectively.
Compression projects at the Haradh and Hawiyah fields commenced commissioning activities and full capacity is expected to be reached in 2023. Construction at the Hawiyah Unayzah Gas Reservoir Storage, the first underground natural gas storage project in the Kingdom, is at an advanced stage and has commenced injection activities. The program is designed to provide up to 2.0 billion standard cubic feet per day of natural gas for reintroduction into the Kingdom’s Master Gas System by 2024.
Aramco and TotalEnergies made a final investment decision in December 2022 to construct a large petrochemical complex in Saudi Arabia. It will enable an existing SATORP refinery to advance Aramco’s liquids-to-chemicals strategy. The investment decision is subject to customary closing conditions and approvals.
In October, Aramco established a $1.5 billion Sustainability Fund to invest in technology needed to support a stable and inclusive energy transition. The fund plans to invest in technologies that support the Company’s announced Scope 1 and Scope 2 net-zero 2050 ambition in its wholly-owned operational assets, as well as development of new lower-carbon fuels.
