Aramco has no plans for refining capacity cushion

Saudi Aramco is not aiming to become a swing supplier of oil products with spare refining capacity, an official said, dampening hopes for further plant expansions that could help ease high fuel prices.

Saudi Arabia’s state oil firm aims to maintain spare crude production capacity to give consumers a cushion in the event of supply shocks, but sees no value in doing the same in its downstream business.
‘That’s not our plan. If you overexpand, margins will collapse,’ Khalid Buainain, vice-president of refining at Saudi Aramco, said on the sidelines of an industry conference.

Aramco, with refining capacity of 4.095 million barrels per day (bpd), is already planning to build two new 400,000-bpd refineries in Saudi Arabia and is in talks over joint projects in the US, China and South Korea.

Trade Arabia