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Partnerships Worth $80 Million Aim to Strengthen Supply Chains in Saudi Arabia

The MoUs will focus on building capabilities and fostering growth across various sectors. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The MoUs will focus on building capabilities and fostering growth across various sectors. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Partnerships Worth $80 Million Aim to Strengthen Supply Chains in Saudi Arabia

The MoUs will focus on building capabilities and fostering growth across various sectors. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The MoUs will focus on building capabilities and fostering growth across various sectors. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

ASMO Logistics, a joint venture of DHL and Saudi Aramco, has signed 16 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with various companies to strengthen cooperation in energy, chemicals, refining, manufacturing, healthcare, aviation, and supply chains across the Middle East and North Africa.

The partnerships, worth over 300 million riyals (about $80 million), aim to digitize and develop the supply chain and procurement sectors in Saudi Arabia, collaborating with firms like Aramco Digital, Oracle, and SAP.

Salem Al-Huraish, Chairman of ASMO, highlighted that these partnerships will boost economic growth by creating a more flexible and efficient supply chain.

He noted that ASMO helps clients focus on their core business while benefiting from superior services, reducing carbon emissions, and improving operational efficiency.

ASMO plans to use innovative solutions to enhance supply chain services, financial operations, and human resource management through these partnerships.

The company will also establish procurement monitoring towers and create an online marketplace to aid businesses in making better decisions and improving productivity.

The MoUs will focus on building capabilities and fostering growth across various sectors. In chemicals and refining, ASMO has partnered with companies like Luberef and Petro Rabigh.

In energy, partners include Baker Hughes and Halliburton. For manufacturing, ASMO collaborates with ArcelorMittal and others.

Additionally, the company has signed MoUs with Aloula Aviation and the Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare Center in the aviation and healthcare sectors.

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US Mulls Plan to Disrupt Iran's Oil by Halting Vessels at Sea

The Liberian-flagged oil tanker Ice Energy transfers crude oil from the Iranian-flagged oil tanker Lana (former Pegas), off the shore of Karystos, on the Island of Evia, Greece, May 26, 2022. REUTERS/Costas Baltas/File Photo
The Liberian-flagged oil tanker Ice Energy transfers crude oil from the Iranian-flagged oil tanker Lana (former Pegas), off the shore of Karystos, on the Island of Evia, Greece, May 26, 2022. REUTERS/Costas Baltas/File Photo
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US Mulls Plan to Disrupt Iran's Oil by Halting Vessels at Sea

The Liberian-flagged oil tanker Ice Energy transfers crude oil from the Iranian-flagged oil tanker Lana (former Pegas), off the shore of Karystos, on the Island of Evia, Greece, May 26, 2022. REUTERS/Costas Baltas/File Photo
The Liberian-flagged oil tanker Ice Energy transfers crude oil from the Iranian-flagged oil tanker Lana (former Pegas), off the shore of Karystos, on the Island of Evia, Greece, May 26, 2022. REUTERS/Costas Baltas/File Photo

US President Donald Trump's administration is considering a plan to stop and inspect Iranian oil tankers at sea under an international accord aimed at countering the spread of weapons of mass destruction, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Trump has vowed to restore a "maximum pressure" campaign to isolate Iran from the global economy and drive its oil exports to zero, in order to stop the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Trump hit Iran with two waves of fresh sanctions in the first weeks of his second-term, targeting companies and the so-called shadow fleet of ageing oil tankers that sail without Western insurance and transport crude from sanctioned countries.

Those moves have largely been in line with the limited measures implemented during former President Joe Biden's administration, during which Iran succeeded in ramping up oil exports through complex smuggling networks.

Trump officials are now looking at ways for allied countries to stop and inspect ships sailing through critical chokepoints such as the Malacca Strait in Asia and other sea lanes, according to six sources who asked not to be named due to the sensitive subject.

That would delay delivery of crude to refiners. It could also expose parties involved in facilitating the trade to reputational damage and sanctions, the sources said.

"You don’t have to sink ships or arrest people to have that chilling effect that this is just not worth the risk," one of the sources said.

"The delay in delivery ... instills uncertainty in that illicit trade network."

The administration was examining whether inspections at sea could be conducted under the auspices of the Proliferation Security Initiative launched in 2003, which aims to prevent the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction.

The US drove that initiative, which has been signed by over 100 governments.

This mechanism could enable foreign governments to target Iran's oil shipments at Washington's request, one of the sources said, effectively delaying deliveries and hitting supply chains Tehran relies upon for revenue.

The National Security Council, which formulates policy in the White House, was looking into possible inspections at sea, two of the sources said.

It was unclear if Washington had yet approached any signatories to the Proliferation Security Initiative to test their willingness to cooperate with the proposal.

John Bolton, who was the US lead negotiator for the initiative when it was formed, told Reuters: "it would be fully justified" to use the initiative to slow down Iran oil exports. He noted that selling oil was "obviously critical to raise revenue for the government of Iran to conduct both its proliferation activities and support for terrorism."

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Iran's parliament on March 2 that Trump "has once again signed an order sanctioning many of our ships at sea, leaving them uncertain about how to unload their oil and gas cargo". He was referring to Trump's latest round of sanctions.