A contractor who has business dealings with Saudi Aramco has told Arabic newspaper Al Watan that the company has a budget of US$60 billion to spend over the next five years on a number of oil and gas projects,
“Saudi Aramco has informed its large local contractors and agents of global firms that it had allocated a budget reaching $60 billion … to carry out oil and gas projects of various sizes up to 2014,” Al Watan reported, citing “one of Aramco’s large contractors”.
The report comes after Saudi Arabian finance minister Ibrahim Al Assaf announced a massive $100 billion five-year investment package for the oil industry.
If the report is true the state-owned company’s mammoth spending plans come at a time where many oil and gas development projects around the world are being either shelved or cancelled due to the current low price of crude. Many companies are also cutting back to preserve liquidity. However, the amount quoted is consderably lower than the figures banded around in 2008. In February last year former Aramco CEO Abdallah Jum’ah told a conference in Houston that the company had $90 billion to spend.
Aramco has 144 projects planned over the next five years. Out this number eight are considered to be “giant”.
