Saudi Arabia To Increase Refining Capacity, Become Second Largest Refined Oil Exporter

Posted by EM_Equity ⋅ February 25, 2015 ⋅ Leave a comment

Filed Under Ali Al-Naimi, EM, Emerging Markets, exports, FM, Frontier Markets, investing, MENA, Middle East, Oil, Oil Exporters, OPEC, Refined Oil, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi.

Saudi Arabia is looking to become the world’s second-largest exporter of refined oil in 2017, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports.

Al-Naimi said that the Saudi Kingdom seeks to increase refining capacity in an effort to diversify its economy and boost its share in the global crude and petroleum markets, the WSJ reports.

“We are no longer limited to exporting crude oil,” al-Naimi said during a conference in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Naimi said that Saudi Arabia’s two new refineries will add 800,000 barrels a day in refining capacity in 2015 and that the planned 400,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Jazan will bring the Kingdom’s refining capacity to over 3 million barrels per day, according to the WSJ report.

“That will make the kingdom one of the five largest countries in the world in terms of refined crude capacity and the second largest exporter of refined products after the U.S.,” al-Naimi said.