The world’s biggest oil exporter, Saudi Aramco, carefully ventured out into the business of natural gas by selling its first shipment of the fuel.
As informed by Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser, Aramco sold the shipment of liquefied natural gas from Singapore. No much additional details were given. In March, Aramco’s trading subsidiary sold the cargo to an Indian buyer, according sources.
State-run Aramco is looking forward to become a “major player” in the gas industry and is seeking for potential partnerships and joint ventures, said Nasser in Riyadh. “There is a lot of potential to grow our gas in the kingdom. At the same time, we are looking at international gas.”
The latest LNG deal of Aramco is an example of it's effort to flourish outside its historical business of selling and pumping crude. The company plans to buy a presiding stake in the Middle East’s largest petrochemicals maker, Saudi Basic Industries Corp., and is investing in refineries in Asia and beyond.
Since it does not produce LNG itself, Aramco has been eyeing gas assets in Arctic Russia and Africa as informed by Khalid Al-Falih, Saudi Energy Minister in Riyadh. In January, it hired an employee from Singapore’s Pavilion Energy Pte Ltd to develop its LNG business, focusing on marketing and trading.
Saudi Aramco Products Trading Co, by making it's first LNG sale, has shown active interest in selling cargoes of the fuel on a spot or short-term basis to Pakistan as mentioned by Imran Khan’s task force on energy reforms. Aramco has planned to send a delegation to Pakistan to further discuss the proposal.
Nasser mentioned that over the next 10 years Aramco also wants to develop Saudi gas resources and plans to almost double gas production in the kingdom.
“For the first time ever, we will be exporting gas either by pipeline or as LNG from Saudi Arabia,” he said. “For gas, we will be a major player.”
Gas releases lesser carbon than oil or coal when burned and is anticipated to be the fastest-growing fossil fuel, with global demand forecast to increase by 43% through 2040, compared with 10% for oil, according to the International Energy Agency. Saudi Arabia seeks also to increase its use of gas at home to replace crude as a fuel for power plants.