Saudi Aramco taps technology to cut crude production cost: CEO

Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco), the world’s largest crude exporter, is developing techniques to convert 70 percent of every produced oil barrel to chemicals, thus cutting the cost of production, Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser told CNBC Arabia.

“This will add value to every oil barrel and boost oil usage in the chemicals industry”, he said.

Aramco has been integrating its refining activity with petrochemicals to serve its plans to expand market share, and refined products portfolio.

Last November, it signed a preliminary deal with Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) to build a chemicals complex to convert 45 percent of crude oil to chemicals directly.

“The use of oil in the petrochemicals sector is likely to become a key source of oil demand growth in the 2020s - in fact, growing by more than 50 percent over the coming two decades,” Nasser said lately.