Saudi Aramco inaugurates Aramco Asia head office in Beijing

State-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Aramco) recently inaugurated Aramco Asia, its new Chinese head office in Beijing, with two supporting branches in Shanghai and Xiamen. According to its Senior Vice President Abdulrahman F. Al-Wuhaib, the new Beijing office will serve as a hub for facilitating activities, as well as investment and business opportunities that come up from projects in Saudi Arabia and Asia.
According to the company’s press release, the new offices will provide services for marketing crude oil and chemicals, joint venture coordination, purchasing, inspection, research and development, project and human resources development and communications within the region.
Aramco currently holds a 22.5% stake in retail oil products distributor Sinopec SenMei Petroleum Company, and a 25% stake in the Fujian Refining & Petrochemical Company (FRPC) which operates a 240,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery. As a way of entering China’s lucrative chemical market, Saudi Aramco plans to sell chemical products from FRPC.
Aramco, jointly with Sinopec, is developing a refinery in Yanbu on the Saudi Red Sea coast. The refinery will have a capacity of 400,000 bpd. Aramco will own a 62.5% share in the project. (November 14, 2012)