A Gazprom delegation led by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee has paid a visit to Saudi Arabia.

In the course of the visit Alexey Miller attended the Russian-Saudi Business Forum and held talks with Abdullah Al-Dabbagh, Governor & Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) and top executives of the country’s largest petroleum and petrochemicals companies.

Reference:

Saudi Arabia is the largest economy in the Middle East. The country’s economic development is based on oil recovery accounting at present for about 14 per cent of the global total.

Oil in Saudi Arabia is produced by the national corporation Saudi Aramco. Saudi Arabia has the world’s largest oil reserves – 22 per cent of the global total – with the bulk as the most qualitative and expensive Light and Extra Light crude oil grades.

About a half of Saudi Arabia’s oil export goes to Asia Pacific (Japan and South Korea in the first place), with considerable volumes also supplied to the USA.

Saudi Arabia has substantial refining capacities both domestically and abroad. Recently, the country has moved on the path of substituting crude oil deliveries with deep processing product exports. At the same time, the national strategy aimed at increasing the value-added in the domestic oil and gas upstream sector envisages aggressive development of the petrochemicals industry. The internal demand for gas in Saudi Arabia outstrips its production.

Saudi Arabia is the world’s fourth country in terms of natural gas reserves. Over the past decade Saudi Aramco has been active in searching for, exploring and developing both onshore and offshore gas fields. According to the corporate data, in 2005 gas extraction exceeded 70 bcm. In order to spare extra oil volumes for export purposes, there are plans to consistently boost domestic gas consumption. Saudi Arabia is intent on actively developing the national natural gas transmission and distribution system.