Giant Saudi Arabian state oil company Saudi Aramco is pumping more cash into expanding oil production as it predicts growing demand this decade.
The news will be welcome in struggling tanker markets as the group pledged to increase capital expenditure to between $45bn and $50bn this year, with further increases coming into the middle of the decade.
The figure for 2021 was $31.9bn.
Aramco said in its annual results that it intends to raise its “maximum sustainable capacity” to 13m barrels per day (bpd) of crude by 2027.
The aim is also to up gas production by more than 50% by 2030.
Saudi Arabia produced just over 10m barrels of oil per day in February.
Saudi Aramco expects demand to keep climbing, and said “substantial new investment” is required as a result.
Chief executive Amin Nasser said the company’s plan “aims to tap into rising long-term demand for reliable, affordable and ever more secure and sustainable energy”.
“We recognise that energy security is paramount for billions of people around the world, which is why we continue to make progress on increasing our crude oil production capacity, executing our gas expansion programme,” he added.
The company’s net profit increased 124% to $110bn for last year, against $49bn in 2020.
Western pleas for more oil
The Brent crude price hit a 14-year high of $139 a barrel earlier in March. It has since fallen to nearer $100.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are being encouraged by Western governments to pump out more oil as they seek to wean themselves off Russian supplies.
The two countries are reported to be the only two leading oil producers that have immediate spare capacity available.
But the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a recent report that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are so far “showing no willingness to tap into reserves”.
The Opec+ group of exporters is due to meet at the end of March to decide output levels.
