Amin Nasser, the head of Saudi Aramco, has played down fears of there being limited spare capacity in Saudi Arabia by saying that the company can rapidly scale up to its maximal sustainable crude oil production of 12 million barrels per day (bpd) if necessary.
While this was already the nameplate capacity of the Saudi giant, some have raised concerns that technical challenges may prevent the company from realising and sustaining this level of production. Nevertheless, Nasser said in an earnings call that the company was confident in its ability to reach its maximum capacity quickly and sustainably once requested by the Saudi Government. As part of the OPEC+ deal, Saudi Arabia’s production quota is 11.03 million bpd for September.
Saudi Aramco is the world’s largest oil company by far with a revenue of $1.3 trillion, compared with $280.4 billion for US major ExxonMobil, the maker of the popular Mobil lubricant range. It is also one of the largest companies in the world of any type.
Nasser also said it was in the process of increasing its capacity further:
“We are making progress on ramping up our maximum sustainable capacity from 12 million to 13 million bpd by 2027, and potentially increasing gas production by more than 50% by 2030.”
He added that offshore fields like the Marjan and Zuluf plays are expected to account for most of the added production, with total production reaching 12.3, 12.7, and 13 million bpd in 2025, 2026, and 2027, respectively.
