Aramco’s upstream comes into focus
Saudi heavyweight must achieve ambitious government pledge despite revenues feeling the squeeze
The Saudi energy ministry’s directive for state-owned Saudi Aramco to increase its maximum sustainable capacity (MSC) by 1mn bl/d to 13mn bl/d will be a challenge for the company given financial pressures and competing upstream priorities. The immediate trigger for the directive, issued on 11 March, was the price war launched just days earlier when Opec+ talks failed to prolong production cuts. The economic backdrop was further weakened by the Covid-19 pandemic. Aramco did not disclose a timeframe for bringing the additional capacity online or say where it would come from. But the company began by digging into existing spare capacity and inventories to raise output by roughly 2.5mn bl/d to

Also in this section
3 July 2025
The July/August 2025 issue of Petroleum Economist is out now!
2 July 2025
The global energy community will converge in Dubai on 10 December for a landmark event dedicated to shaping the future of natural gas across the region
30 June 2025
Government is sending out the right policy signals to support increased domestic gas development, but policy takes time to implement and even longer to yield results
27 June 2025
Gas-on-gas competition pricing has grown its share of consumption significantly over the past two decades, primarily at the expense of oil-price-escalation pricing, according to the IGU