Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser spoke at the Oil and Money Conference in London, touching on issues including climate change and the recent attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure, which he said were not only aimed at KSA, but “targeted the global economy and indeed the wider global community.”
“The sharp oil market reaction following the attacks on our facilities reflected understandable supply concerns,” he said. “But Saudi Aramco’s rapid response and the confidence our various stakeholders have in our ability to quickly restore production helped to calm the global oil market. In the absence of those capabilities, and had the market believed the supply loss would be longer term, the reaction would have been much steeper and more sustained.”
He noted that the creativity and “tireless efforts” of Saudi Aramco’s employees were behind the quick recovery, as well as its efforts to localise supply and service chains.
The company returned to pre-attack production levels one week ahead of schedule, although questions still remain about the facilities’ ability to process and export petroleum products. Saudi Aramco is on track to hit maximum sustained capacity of 12mn barrels per day by the end of November, as planned.
“…The optimum flexibility and planned fail-safe redundancies built into our facilities and our vast production network proved instrumental in accelerating the restoration work.”
However, because of the threat attacks of this nature pose on the global energy landscape and global economy, Nasser urged for international action in response.
“…An absence of international resolve to take concrete action may embolden the attackers and indeed put the world’s energy security at greater risk,” he said. “Saudi Aramco, for its part, remains committed to ensuring reliable supply and access to energy the world needs, which I believe is key to the future health of our industry.”
