SAUDI Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser said on Sunday the oil giant was looking at further opportunities to invest in China, where he said oil demand was robust and growing.

State-owned Aramco has been ramping up its China presence in a string of deals in refining and petrochemicals, some of them with crude offtake agreements attached.

"So far we are in the early part of 2024, demand is healthy and growing in China," Nasser said following the release of results that showed net profit for last year falling 24.7 per cent to $121.3bn (£94.3bn) on lower oil prices.

It had reported a $161bn (£125bn) profit in 2022, believed to be the largest ever reported by a publicly traded company. Aramco reported overall revenue of $440bn (£342bn) last year, down from $535bn (£416bn) in 2022.

Nasser said the country's refineries were some of the most fully integrated and had the highest conversion rates and Aramco was currently looking at further opportunities for investment.

He expected the global oil market to remain healthy throughout 2024.

"We expect it to be fairly robust, we are looking at growth of about 1.5 million barrels," Nasser said.

Nasser put demand for 2024 at 104 million barrels a day as opposed to an average of 102.4 million barrels in 2023.

The Saudi government in late January ordered Aramco to scrap its expansion plan to boost production capacity to 13 million barrels a day (mbpd), returning to the previous 12 mbpd target.

The capacity target decision had sent shares of US oilfield services providers tumbling as higher international and offshore oil exploration and production, primarily in the Middle East and Africa, had largely helped oilfield firms ride out slowing drilling activity by US shale firms.

Reuters

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