By Abdulla Fardan and Glen Carey
Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest state-owned oil company, still plans to expand production capacity to 12.5 million barrels a day next year as demand slows, according to Chief Executive Officer Khalid A. Al-Falih.
Saudi Aramco has delayed refinery projects with international partners including ConocoPhillips as the global credit crisis causes uncertainty about future demand, Al-Falih said in an interview broadcast by Dubai-based al-Arabiya television.
``The market in general is slowing at a fast pace, therefore all refinery projects will be reviewed by investing companies,'' al-Falih said. ``It was difficult to get suitable offers for several projects by the end of this year.''
Saudi Aramco and ConocoPhillips said this week they would halt the bidding process for a planned 400,000 barrel-per-day export refinery in Saudi Arabia, citing market ``uncertainties.'' The project at the Yanbu Industrial City will be re-tendered in the second quarter of 2009, the companies said.
Saudi Aramco and Total SA of France may also delay the planned 400,000 barrel-a-day Jubail refinery, Al-Hayat reported yesterday, without saying where it got the information. The Jazan refinery on the Rea Sea coast, also a 400,000 barrel-a-day project, may also be postponed, the newspaper reported.
Saudi Aramco and Total agreed in June to build an oil refining and petrochemical complex in Jubail to export fuel and petrochemicals by 2012. Saudi Arabia had planned to announce the builder of the Jazan refinery by the end of the second quarter next year, the Saudi Press Agency reported last month.
Saudi Arabia had pledged to spend some $250 billion on energy by 2012 to raise oil output and increase refining capacity by 50 percent.
To contact the reporter on this story: Glen Carey in Dubai at gcarey8@bloomberg.net. Abdulla Fardan in Bahrain at afardan@bloomberg.net
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