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