State owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco, has opened a new Chinese head office in Beijing, deepening its presences in one of the world's largest energy consumers, in a move the company says "underscores the strategic importance of Asia" in its operation.
State owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco, has opened a new Chinese
head office in Beijing, deepening its presences in one of the world's largest
energy consumers, in a move the company says "underscores the strategic
importance of Asia" in its operation.
Aramco Asia, a solely-owned subsidiary of Aramco, opened on Monday and will
serve as the business and cultural exchange portal between Aramco and
China
. The
new head office in
Beijing
has
two supporting branches in
Shanghai
and
Xiamen
, it
said.
"Our new
Asia
office here in
Beijing
will
be a hub for facilitating our joint activities in general and in particular
investment and other business opportunities arising from the capital projects
in
Saudi Arabia
and
Asia
,"
said Aramco Senior Vice President Abdulrahman F. Al-Wuhaib at the Aramco Asia
inauguration ceremony on Monday in
Beijing
.
The new offices will provide crude oil and chemicals marketing services, joint
venture coordination, procurement, inspection, research and development,
project management, human resources development and communications in the
region, according to the press release.
Aramco already has two joint ventures in
China
with
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (SNP), or Sinopec Group, and ExxonMobil
Corp. (XOM). It holds a 22.5% stake in retail oil products distributor Sinopec
SenMei Petroleum Company, and a 25% stake in the Fujian Refining &
Petrochemical Company, which operates a 240,000 barrel-per-day refinery. The
province
of
Fuji
also
has a 25% stake in the operation.
Saudi Aramco is also planning to sell chemical products from FRPC to tap in to
China
's
lucrative chemical market, the press release said.
Separately, Aramco is developing a 400,000-barrel-a-day refinery in Yanbu on
the Saudi Red Sea coast together with Sinopec. Aramco will own 62.5% stakes in the project.
��:lHe{�Uynsi-language:EN-GB;
mso-fareast-language:EL;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA'>, bypassing
Ukraine
, aims
to be operational by 2015. It will deliver 63 billion cubic meters of gas a
year, representing about 14% of EU consumption.
Gazprom is already operating another pipeline, called Nord Stream, which runs
under the
Baltic Sea
and will eventually be able to deliver 55 billion
cubic meters a year of gas into northern
Germany
.
Analysts say the asset swap lets Gazprom store gas closer to its customers in
Europe
. "It
will facilitate gas sales to
Europe
and
make the market more stable," said Sberbank Investment Research's Valery
Nesterov.
More stable supply will likely lead to fewer big moves in gas prices, and
"protect Gazprom from criticism over gas pricing and unevenness in supply
that it has come under in the past," Mr. Nesterov said.
The BASF deal comes as Gazprom is subject to an antitrust probe by the European
Commission into whether it has broken antimonopoly rules by imposing unfair gas
prices through contracts linked to oil prices, or prevented countries from
diversifying their gas supplies. Gazprom denies these charges.
The deal is subject to approval by regulators and the companies said in a joint
statement they expect it to be completed by the end of 2013.
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