Saudi giant creates new leadership positions to drive growth plans

Saudi state-owned oil and gas giant Aramco has appointed presidents of its upstream and downstream businesses to support the company’s growth plans. 

Aramco has appointed Nasir K. Al-Naimi as President of its Upstream business and Mohammed Y. Al Qahtani as President of its Downstream business, both reporting along with executive vice presidents to the company’s president and CEO Amin H. Nasser.

Al-Naimi held the position of Upstream executive vice president since 1 April 2021, while Al Qahtani served as Aramco’s Downstream executive vice president since 13 September 2020.

The newly created positions and appointments will be effective from 1 July and will replace the previous Upstream and Downstream executive vice president positions, respectively.

According to Nasser, this decision is expected to help drive operational and financial performance, supporting Aramco’s upstream capacity growth and downstream expansion, together with the ambition to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions across wholly-owned operated assets by 2050.

“I am delighted to announce these appointments, which demonstrate our emphasis on the upstream and downstream components of our business as Aramco continues to transform to meet the world’s energy demand,” Nasser said. “We continue to identify ways to further optimize and innovate across the Aramco group, and I am confident these newly created roles will help us deliver on our objectives.”

To remind, Aramco posted its highest annual profit ever as a listed company, totaling $161.1 billion in 2022, amid high energy demand, tight supply, and elevated oil and gas prices. The record net income represents a 46.5 per cent rise on a year-on-year basis, compared to the $110 billion for the full-year 2021.

Moreover, the company’s focus on the energy transition and lower-carbon solutions was illustrated with the recent launch of a $1.5 billion sustainability fund, as well as one of the world’s largest planned carbon capture and storage hubs.