MUST-READS

• Saudi Aramco cuts January 2025 LPG prices

  Saudi Aramco has reduced the official selling prices for propane and butane for January 2025. According to an official statement on Tuesday, the price of propane was lowered by $10 per tonne, while butane saw a $15 per tonne reduction compared to the previous month. Propane and butane are both types of liquefied petroleum gas, commonly used for heating, vehicle fuel, and as a feedstock in the petrochemical industry. These products have distinct boiling points, making them suitable for different applications.

• Aramco raises diesel prices in Saudi Arabia to $0.44 per liter

  Saudi Aramco has increased diesel prices in Saudi Arabia to SR1.66 ($0.44) per liter, effective Jan. 1, 2025, marking a 44.3 percent rise compared to the start of 2024. According to the latest update on Aramco’s website, the company has kept gasoline prices unchanged, with Gasoline 91 priced at SR2.18 per liter and Gasoline 93 at SR2.33 per liter. The annual review of diesel prices is part of Aramco’s pricing mechanism, implemented in 2022. This year marks the fourth review under the system. In January 2024, the Kingdom raised diesel prices to SR1.15 from SR0.75 per liter, continuing its gradual adjustments.

• Saudi Arabia Taps Aramco Oil Field Brine in Lithium Battery Push

  Saudi Arabia is exploring projects that can produce lithium for batteries in an effort to ramp up production in the Middle Eastern oil exporter. The country, in the midst of revamping its economy to prepare for a post-oil world, is running two projects to test lithium production methods as part of a plan to develop materials for electric car batteries, Khalid Al-Mudaifer, the vice-minister for mining, said in an interview this week. The country is planning additional ventures, he said. Separately, Saudi Aramco is working on a joint project to extract lithium from brine taken from oil fields, the state energy giant said in an e-mailed response to questions. The presence of lithium and its concentrations and the prospects for extraction are being evaluated, the company said. Aramco is working with the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.

• Aramco to develop CCS in Saudi Arabia

  Saudi Aramco has signed a shareholders’ agreement with Linde and SLB for development of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) hub in Jubail, the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Phase one of the new CCS hub is expected to capture and store up to 9 million metric tons/year of CO₂ from three Aramco gas plants and other industrial sources. The captured CO₂ will be transported through a pipeline network and stored below ground in a saline aquifer sink, the operator said in a release Dec. 4. Construction is expected to be completed by end-2027. Later phases could further expand capacity. The overall project is aimed at supporting Aramco's ambition to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and gas emissions across its wholly owned operated assets by 2050.

• Aramco’s Diversification Strategy: Fueling Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030

  Saudi Aramco is not only the largest oil producer globally but also the most profitable business, surpassing tech giants like Apple and Microsoft. Aramco is evolving far beyond its traditional role, now positioning itself at the forefront of economic diversification, technological innovation, and sustainability, aligning with the broader vision set forth by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to transform the Saudi economy and reduce its dependence on oil. This shift has turned Aramco into a key player in reshaping the kingdom’s energy landscape and broader strategic interests. In a strategic move in March, Saudi Arabia transferred 8% of Aramco’s shares to the PIF – valued at around $163.6 billion, reflecting Aramco’s market worth – aiming to bolster the fund as the kingdom prepares for a possible IPO of the company. This transaction could provide additional financing for Vision 2030. The transaction raised the combined stake of the PIF and its affiliates in Saudi Aramco to 16%, equating to $327 billion in value.

• Aramco, TotalEnergies, and Saudi Investment Recycling Company (SIRC) assess development of sustainable aviation fuels plant

  Aramco, one of the world’s leading integrated energy and chemicals companies, TotalEnergies, a global multi-energy company that produces and markets energies, and Saudi Investment Recycling Company (SIRC), a major player that collects and turns organic materials into sustainable products in Saudi Arabia, today announced the signing of a Joint Development and Cost Sharing Agreement (JDCSA) to assess the potential development of a sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) plant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

• How Saudi Aramco’s CFO Thinks About Dividends

  The world’s biggest oil producer is largely owned by the Saudi Arabian government, with less than 3% of shares trading freely on the country’s stock exchange following its initial public offering in 2019. For that reason, Aramco is focusing heavily on another option that CFOs have for returning capital to shareholders: dividends. The company is on course to allocate over $124 billion toward that payout this year, up from about $98 billion in 2023 and $75 billion in 2022, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s significantly more than its international peers. Shell, for example, spent more than $14 billion on buybacks in 2023, and $8.4 billion on dividends. The trend was similar at other energy firms — apart from at Norway’s Equinor, which is majority-owned by the government and allocated nearly $11 billion to dividends in 2023, while spending $5.6 billion on buybacks.

• Saudi Aramco unit in talks to invest $1 billion in US software maker Mavenir, sources say
  Saudi Aramco's (2223.SE), opens new tab digital arm is in talks to take a significant minority stake in Mavenir, in a deal that is likely to value the U.S. telecommunications software maker at about $3 billion, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. Aramco Digital is in talks to invest about $1 billion in Mavenir and a deal is likely to be signed before the end of the year, the sources said, cautioning that a transaction is not guaranteed. The deal by Aramco Digital, the wholly-owned technology subsidiary of the oil giant, would be its first major transaction in the telecommunications industry as part of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 plan, which focuses on technological advancements and economic diversification.

• Saudi Aramco Plans Regular Debt Issues

  Saudi Aramco plans to regularly tap the bond market for debt issuance as it looks to optimize capital structure and widen its investor base, Ziad Al-Murshed, chief financial officer of the world’s biggest oil firm, told Bloomberg in an interview. “You’ll see us do a couple of things. One is, just take on more debt compared to use of equity,” Al-Murshed told Bloomberg. “It’s nothing to do with the dividend, it is optimizing our capital structure so that we end up with a lower weighted average cost of capital.” Aramco returned to the debt market this year, following three years of absence, with two bond issues in which it sold a combined $9 billion in debt.

• Saudi Aramco CFO Driven Off Stage by Climate Protesters in US

  Climate protesters disrupted an MIT event with Saudi Arabian Oil Co. Chief Financial Officer Ziad Al-Murshed in a Boston suburb on Thursday, causing the executive to leave. About 15 people rushed onto the stage while Al-Murshed was speaking, waving posters with “murderer” written on them and chanting phrases such as “no more drilling rigs.” Al-Murshed, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumnus, exited the room and didn’t return. The organizers of the event, the MIT Sloan CFO Summit, said in a statement that “in abundance of caution, the decision was made to end the talk.” The incident is under investigation by the police, the statement said.

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