Aramco goes on contracting spree as US players split its $90 billion cake into 34 slices

Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s energy heavyweight, has dished out multiple deals spanning liquefied natural gas (LNG), fuels, chemicals, emission-reduction technologies, artificial intelligence (AI), and other digital solutions, manufacturing, asset management, short-term cash investments, and procurement of materials, equipment, and services.

Thanks to these contract awards, U.S. companies have secured 34 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) and agreements related to the energy sector and beyond, with a potential total value of approximately $90 billion with Aramco Group Companies across upstream, downstream, technical services, technology & innovation, strategy & corporate development, and finance arenas.

The objective of the deals, which cover collaborations and partnerships relating to a range of the Saudi giant’s activities, is to further advance the firm’s long-term strategy, maximize shareholder value, and build on its longstanding relationship with U.S. players, fostering innovation and development across multiple fields.

The batch of deals covering the upstream segment entails an MoU with Sempra Infrastructure regarding the previously disclosed heads of agreement for LNG equity and offtake stake in Port Arthur LNG 2.

In addition, Aramco signed a collaboration agreement with Woodside Energy to explore global opportunities, including an equity interest and LNG offtake from the Louisiana LNG project. The duo is also looking into opportunities for a potential collaboration in lower-carbon ammonia.

The Saudi giant also revealed a final agreement with NextDecade to purchase 1.2 million tons per annum of LNG for a 20-year term from Train 4 of the Rio Grande LNG facility, subject to certain conditions, including a positive final investment decision of Train 4.

The set of deals for technical services encompasses MoUs for procured materials and services that were penned to reflect the existing relationships with Aramco’s strategic U.S. suppliers, such as SLB, Baker Hughes, McDermott, Halliburton, Nabors, Helmerich & Payne, Valaris, NESR, Weatherford, Air Products, KBR, Flowserve, NOV, Emerson, GE Vernova, and Honeywell. 

Within the downstream segment, Aramco penned several MoUs, including the ones with Honeywell UOP related to technology licensing for an aromatics project; Motiva for an aromatics project in Port Arthur, subject to a final investment decision; Afton Chemical for the development and supply of chemical fuel additives in pipelines and retail fuel offerings; and ExxonMobil to evaluate a significant upgrade to the SAMREF refinery and expansion of the facility into an integrated petrochemical complex.

Amin H. Nasser, Aramco President & CEO, commented: “Yesterday’s announcements show the breadth and depth of Aramco’s long history of partnerships with US companies since the first discovery of oil in the Kingdom more than 90 years ago. Our US-related activities have evolved over the decades, and now include multi-disciplinary R&D, the Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, start-up investments, potential collaborations in LNG, and ongoing procurement.

“As Aramco pursues an ambitious value-driven growth strategy, we believe that aligning with world-class partners supports further development of our operations, strategic diversification of our portfolio, industrial innovation, and ongoing capability development within the Kingdom.”  

In the technology & innovation segment, the Saudi player not only signed a non-binding strategic framework agreement with Amazon/AWS for a collaboration on digital transformation and lower-carbon initiatives but also an MoU with NVIDIA for developing advanced industrial AI computing infrastructure, establishing an AI Hub and AI Enterprise platforms, an engineering and robotics center of excellence, training and upskilling, and collaborating with its start-up ecosystem.

Another MoU was also inked with Qualcomm that aims to enable Aramco Digital to explore entry into a strategic collaboration that will focus on key digital transformation use cases, leveraging the latter’s 450 MHz 5G industrial network to connect intelligent edge devices with on-device AI capabilities, including smartphones, rugged industrial devices, robots, drones, cameras, sensors, and other IoT devices.

Additionally, the firm also inked an MoU within the strategy & corporate development segment with Guardian Glass to localize specialty glass manufacturing for architectural applications in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

When it comes to the finance segment, Aramco confirmed Wisayah asset management agreements with PIMCO, State Street Corporation, and Wellington, alongside agreements for short-term cash investments through a unified investment fund, the Fund of One, with BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and PIMCO.