Saudi Aramco has announced it will increase investment in its oil and gas fields this year as part of the state-run energy giant's aim of increasing crude oil production to 13mln barrels per day by 2027.
Last month, the Saudi Arabian public petroleum and gas company, the world's largest oil producer, churned out just over 10mln barrels of oil per day.
UK prime minister Boris Johnson last week visited Saudi Arabia, which owns 98% of Aramco, to ask the country to release more oil amid the energy crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Since the start of 2022 a barrel of Brent Crude Oil (LSE:BRENT) has soared from just over US$80 to above US$130 earlier this month. Having fallen below US$100 on hopes for peace talks, on Monday it was up more than 3% to US$112.54.
For the past calendar year, as oil prices recovered from their 2020 lows, Aramco said it doubled net profit for 2021 to a massive US$205bn of pre-tax profit, with net profit coming in at US$110bn.
As well as keeping its annual dividend at US$75bn, unchanged from a year ago, Aramco said it planned to increase its capital expenditure to US$40-50bn this year with further increases until the middle of the decade. Capital expenditures were just under US$32bn last year.
As well as increasing Aramco crude production the Saudi government aims to free up an additional 1mln barrels of crude oil export capacity by 2027 through increased domestic gas consumption.
By the end of this decade, Aramco is working to boost gas production by almost 50%, largely due to its massive US$100bn-plus Jafurah unconventional gas development venture, where it expects production to reach 2bn cubic feet per day by 2030.
The kingdom, the world's top crude exporter and the de facto leader of the Opec oil cartel, has been seeking to diversify since Mohammed bin Salman became crown prince in 2017, including the ambitious plans to develop a 'smart megacity' called Neom as a major producer of green hydrogen as one of nine technology-focused sectors "targeting the future of human civilisation".