Saudi Aramco announced Wednesday establishing Saudi Aramco Retail Co., a domestic fuel retailing subsidiary. The company will create a network of filling stations within Saudi Arabia to sell automotive fuels.
“Integrating fully across the hydrocarbon value chain is key to capturing maximum value from our resources,” said Abdulaziz Al Judaimi, Aramco’s senior vice president of downstream.
“It will leverage synergies in our business model and position us to actively participate in the customer-facing segment of the downstream value chain.”
The formation of the new unit is the start of a series of initiatives and deals for Retail Co to become a “full-fledged” fuel retail segment of Aramco, the company said.
Aramco is increasingly pivoting to grow its downstream business to reduce the risk of a slowdown in the demand for oil in the global markets.
The move to sell fuel directly at its own network of domestic stations will allow Aramco to cater directly to consumers as part of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 program to improve citizens’ standard of living, the company said.
