Aramco to Boost Capacity to 13 Million bpd by 2027

 Oil demand is expected to grow in Q3 2021 to 99 million barrels per day. (Reuters)
Oil demand is expected to grow in Q3 2021 to 99 million barrels per day. (Reuters)
TT
20

Aramco to Boost Capacity to 13 Million bpd by 2027

 Oil demand is expected to grow in Q3 2021 to 99 million barrels per day. (Reuters)
Oil demand is expected to grow in Q3 2021 to 99 million barrels per day. (Reuters)

Saudi Arabia’s national oil company will complete its one million barrel per day (bpd) oil output expansion project by 2027 to bring its total production to 13 million bpd, its CEO said on Monday.

“Our maximum sustained capacity from 12 to 13 million (bpd)... is not going to come to full capacity at 13 million bpd until 2027,” Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser told the Energy Intelligence Forum online conference.

Aramco, the world’s largest oil exporter, also aims to expand its oil trading business to eight million bpd over the next five years from its current 5.5 million bpd, Nasser said.

Global oil demand is “very healthy” he affirmed, noting that it will amount to 99 million bpd by the end of 2021 from 97 million bpd in Q3 2021, with some natural gas customers switching to liquids.

The CEO pointed to the company’s efforts to extract carbon emissions from vehicles, while striving to reduce the impact of internal combustion engines on the environment by providing low-carbon means of transportation.

He referred to the linear carbon economic model in which economies discard raw materials as waste after use, stressing that the circular carbon economic system uses resources again.

“A circular carbon economy is a framework for managing and reducing emissions. It is a closed loop system involving 4Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle, and remove.”

Nasser said the kingdom and Aramco have adopted the circular carbon economy framework as a way to reduce their carbon footprints.

The concept of an economy based on carbon recycling is described as a basic pillar that helps in rebalancing the carbon cycle in the world.



China’s First Four-Month Steel Exports at Record High Despite Tariff Turmoil 

Workers install steel rods at a construction site in Miami, Florida, US, March 11, 2025. (Reuters)
Workers install steel rods at a construction site in Miami, Florida, US, March 11, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
20

China’s First Four-Month Steel Exports at Record High Despite Tariff Turmoil 

Workers install steel rods at a construction site in Miami, Florida, US, March 11, 2025. (Reuters)
Workers install steel rods at a construction site in Miami, Florida, US, March 11, 2025. (Reuters)

China's steel exports in April topped 10 million metric tons for a second straight month bringing the total in the first four months to a record high, underpinned by front-loaded shipments ahead of US President Donald Trump's hefty tariffs.

The world's largest steel producer and exporter shipped 10.46 million tons of steel last month, customs data showed on Friday. While largely unchanged from March, exports were 13.5% higher than the same month in 2024.

Exports from January to April jumped by 8.2% from the year before to an all-time high for the period of 37.89 million tons.

"Steel exports in April are a bit higher than our expectation, albeit maintaining positive annual growth, supported by sustained front-loading orders observed," said Jiang Mengtian, a Shanghai-based analyst at consultancy Horizon Insights.

Jiang forecast May shipments to slow as tariff and widening trade protectionism started to bite.

Washington's tariffs threaten the transshipment trade, where third countries resell Chinese steel to the US, while China's top steel customers like South Korea and Vietnam have also imposed duties to avoid steel being rerouted and dumped in their markets.

Second-quarter exports are set to fall by as much as a fifth from the first quarter as a result, eight analysts and traders told Reuters earlier this week.

China's April iron ore imports climbed by 9.8% from March to the highest since December, as improved margins encouraged mills to book more seaborne cargoes.

The world's largest iron ore consumer brought in 103.14 million tons of the key steelmaking ingredient last month, up from a 20-month low of 93.97 million tons in March.

The volume last month, which was largely in line with analysts' expectations, was also 1.3% higher than 101.82 million tons in April 2024.

"Since March imports missed expectations, it's not surprising to see higher iron ore imports in April, which could also be reflected in higher hot metal output last month and a pile-up in inventory in the last two weeks of April," said Pei Hao, an analyst at international brokerage Freight Investor Services (FIS).

In the first four months of this year, China's iron ore imports slid 5.5% from the year earlier to 388.36 million tons, the data showed.