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Manama: A short-term drop in profit margins will have no impact on Saudi Aramco's plans to spend tens of billions of dollars on raising refining capacity, an official from the state oil firm said on Monday.
Top oil exporter Aramco aims to boost its domestic and international refining capacity to 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2013, up from around 2.4 million bpd. The expansion will place Aramco in the top five global refiners by cap-acity, said Khalid Al Buainain, senior vice-president for refining, marketing and international.
"We are in it for the long haul," Buainain told reporters on the sidelines of a conference. "Margins are not as strong as last year, that's for sure. But we're not concerned about short-term volatility in the margins."
Aramco is considering options to take the expansion even further, Buainain said. The company may increase capacity at its Yanbu refinery to 400,000 bpd from around 235,000 bpd now and add an integrated petrochemical plant, he added.
Aramco is considering Saudi Basic Industries (Sabic) as one of the potential partners for the expansion at the Red Sea plant, he said. Sabic is the world's largest chemical maker by market value.
"We are looking at it, we see Yanbu as an opportunity for growth," Buainain said. "It stands as a good prospect. We would love to do business with Sabic."
Aramco is exploring all options to have it fit in with a strategy of integrating refining assets with petrochemical facilities, Buainain added.
He declined to say when Aramco would decide on whether to proceed with the project, but said it was "a long way down the road."
The government has not asked Saudi Aramco to take a role in developing a planned new refinery at Jizan, Buainain said.
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