Saudi Aramco plans to allocate 2-3 million barrels a day (b/d) of crude, roughly a quarter of its production capacity, for petrochemicals production, Nasser was reported saying on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative 2018 event in Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia currently produces around 10.4 million b/d, out of its stated total 12.5 million b/d production capacity. Of this, 7 million b/d is exported, and just under 3 million b/d is used in the kingdom’s refineries to produce fuels and products, according to figures from the Joint Organizations Data Initiative.

Nasser did not provide any further details on when he expected Aramco to reach the new allocation, or if it would cover international and well as domestic production.

Saudi Arabia has a number of integrated petrochemicals facilities such as Satorp, Aramco’s joint venture with France’s Total, and Petro Rabigh, another joint venture with Japan’s Sumitomo Chemicals.

Aramco also announced earlier this year it is moving ahead with plans to jointly develop a new crude-to-chemicals complex with Saudi Basic Industries Corporation. When complete in 2025, complex will convert 400,000 b/d of crude directly, bypassing the normal refining process to produce approximately 9 million metric tonnes a year of petrochemicals and base oils, further boosting the country's domestic refining and petrochemical footprint.

The appointment of KBR as the project management consultant is the second major step for the project, following the signing of a memorandum of understanding in November of 2017 between Saudi Aramco and Sabic.

Nasser’s comments follow the announcement of a raft of new deals agreed at the Riyadh event. These included the expansion of the Satorp integrated petrochemical complex at Jubail and Petro Rabigh refinery, both on the Gulf coast.

Another deal signed at the investment event was between Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih and China’s Pan-Asia Co. to build a petrochemicals complex at Jizan on the southern Red Sea coast, where Aramco is close to completing construction on another 400,000 b/d refinery.