Sinopec and TotalEnergies are among the companies holding talks to invest in Aramco’s Jafurah development, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Saudi Arabia’s state-owned giant is seeking to exploit one of the world’s largest untapped gas fields.
The Chinese and French energy giants are in separate discussions with Saudi Aramco about the plans that may include the construction of facilities to export the fuel as liquefied natural gas, some of the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. Aramco is seeking to raise a total of around $10 billion for the projects, the people said.
Saudi Aramco has been seeking investors that could help fund midstream and downstream projects at its more than $100 billion Jafurah gas development in Dhahran. Aramco has been reaching out to private equity firms and other large funds that invest in infrastructure to offer stakes in assets such as carbon capture and storage projects, pipelines and hydrogen plants, Bloomberg reported in December.