The global oil industry needs around $20 trillion in the next 25 years, Saudi Arabian energy giant Aramco President and CEO Amin Nasser said Tuesday at CERAWeek 2018 by IHS Markit energy conference in Houston.
Due to the plummeting crude oil prices during 2015-2016, the global oil industry lost around $1 trillion, he noted, adding that the oil industry needs new production capacity of 20 million barrels per day in the next five years.
Nasser said that although the use of electric cars has increased around the world, still more than 99 percent of passenger cars in the world run on internal combustion engines.
"By 2030, there will be two billion more people in the world. This will increase the demand for oil and passenger cars," he said, noting the several challenges facing electric cars including the charging time, charging availability, affordability, government subsidies, and infrastructure.
Nasser said the global petrochemical industry is expanding by 2.5 percent to 3 percent every year, thanks in part to new technology. Saudi Aramco has eight facilities around the world for research and development alone.
"The oil market today depends on high utilization and new technologies. We are the lowest cost producer because of these technologies such as seismic exploration, utilization and carbon capture," he said.
Nasser also spoke about Saudi Aramco's planned initial public offering (IPO), which is expected to launch at the end of this year at the earliest.
"IPO is going progressive. We became a joint stock company at the end of 2017. The question is when and where we will be listed. It is up to the shareholders to decide," he said.
Aramco's IPO is expected to first take place in the Saudi stock exchange Tadawul, while several other stock markets are considered for its listing later ranging from New York, London to Hong Kong and Tokyo.
Saudi Arabia aims to earn $100 billion by offering 5 percent of Aramco to the public. This would put the market capitalization of the company at around $2 trillion. If this is realized, Aramco would surpass the market capitalization of the world's most valuable company Apple, which has a market cap of approximately $900 billion at present.
(Anadolu Agency)
