Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, attended a reception today in Seoul held jointly by the Saudi Arabian oil company Saudi Aramco and the Korean oil refining corporation Sang-Yong with which it shares a large-scale joint venture in South Korea. Addressing the gathering, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Ibn Ibrahim Al-Naimi reviewed the great accomplishments Saudi Arabia has made in recent years, such as doubling the productive capacity of crude oil, expanding oil and gas exploration, establishing a fleet of large oil tankers, and entering into downstream operations. He referred to the joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Sang-Yong as an example of the dynamism of the Saudi oil industry and its ability to work efficiently with other partners in the area of oil refining and marketing abroad. The joint venture also reflects the Kingdom's interest in providing steady oil supplies, a guarantee of stability in the oil market, and a realization that oil producers and consumers share common interests.

Saudi Aramco Chairman Abdullah Saleh Jumaa remarked that the Saudi-Korean joint venture was part of the company's long-term strategy to become an integrated international oil and gas company, processing oil from the well to the pump. He reported that the Sang-Yong refinery, which produces large quantities of high-quality oil products, has increased its capacity to more than half a million barrels per day, almost all of it Saudi oil. He added that South Korea's oil consumption has increased to more than 725,000 bpd, from around 61,000 bpd in the early 1990s. Chairman Jumaa went on to say that Aramco has similar joint ventures on three continents, and underscored the oil industry's importance to the global economy.

Return