Saudi Aramco is continuing to invest despite the difficult economic conditions, Mohammed al-Sultan, manager of the state oil major’s mechanical services division, tells MEED.

Al-Sultan underlines the need for Saudi Arabia to transform and diversify its economy away from the oil-dependent model it currently works on.

Aramco has adjusted in the past year to the sharp decline in oil prices, pursuing aggressive cost savings on its rigs and other oil well services, but al-Sultan insists that major projects will still be going ahead as planned.

“We are committed to our strategic 2020 vision (transforming Aramco from an oil and gas company to an energy/industrial company, providing opportunities to the citizens of the kingdom), and we are continuing to invest,” he says. “Hasbah, Fadhili, Jizan (major oil and gas projects) will not have any setbacks. We are continuing as planned.”

Al-Sultan has 32 years of extensive experience in Aramco’s overall maintenance and management fields, and has held various leadership positions throughout his tenure at the world’s largest oil and gas company.

He refers to Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud’s recent interview with US-based news agency Bloomberg, in which the prince announced Saudi Arabia’s plans to create the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund for the kingdom’s most-prized assets, including Aramco, to diversify its economy away from oil.

“Obviously, a transformation or transition is required, and this will be painful. But that will not stop Aramco from investing in maintenance, projects and people,” says al-Sultan, speaking at the 2016 Manufacturing Conference & Exhibition for Oil & Gas.

Despite usually basing its investment on oil supply and demand, Aramco chairman Khalid al-Falih told a conference in January 2016 that he has “continued to encourage fiscal discipline in [his] role as chairman of Aramco, but in [the firm’s] investments capacity, oil and gas has not slowed down”.

“On the whole, we are not feeling too negative in our outlook, and there are many reasons to be optimistic for both Aramco, and Saudi Arabia as a whole,” says al-Sultan.