Saudi Aramco announces expansion of its industrial investment programs

The Saudi Arabian Oil Company Aramco has announced a major expansion of its Namaat industrial investment programs, with 55 agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with local and international companies across the sustainability, digital, industrial, manufacturing and social innovation sectors.

Namaat, which has grown from 32 to 55 investments since last year, supports industrial investment partnerships, helping to create jobs for Saudis and contributing to national growth and capacity building. The program aims to enable opportunities for local and international companies and leverage various incentives offered through the government’s Shareek program and other initiatives.

Ahmad Al-Sa’adi, Aramco Senior Vice President of Technical Services, said: “Namaat enables Aramco to be a catalyst for change across the Kingdom’s economy, while maintaining our reliability as a global energy supplier at a time of market uncertainty. Our collaboration with industry leaders in areas of strategic importance for the Kingdom, demonstrates how Aramco is creating national champions that will bring long term benefits to our value chain, our economy and our people.”

This latest phase of expansion for Namaat reflects even greater integration with other venture life cycle programs that aim to add value and support sustainable growth. It also represents significant progress for the program, with 19 of the 22 MoUs signed last year already reaching fruition, with a total investment of $3.5 billion.

Boosts Long-Term Strategy

The new agreements bolster Aramco’s long-term growth strategy and the Kingdom’s expanding energy and chemicals value chains. They include:

Kent & Nesma; Larsen & Toubro and Gulf Consolidated Contractors; Samsung Engineering & Al-Rushaid Group; Hyundai & Al-Rashid Trading & Contracting Co (RTCC); Saipem & Nasser S. Al-Hajri Corporation (NSH); and Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Co. Ltd (SSEC) & Abdel Hadi Abdullah Al-Qahtani & Sons Co. (AHQ) – Six joint ventures involving the engineering, procurement and construction of new projects.

Honeywell – Joint venture to develop and implement digital technology solutions across industrial facilities, Armorock and AlKifah Precast – Joint venture to localize the use of polymers in concrete production, Shell & AMG Recycling and United Company for Industry (UCI) – Signing of Vanadium concentrate sales agreement, enabling the construction of an in-Kingdom metal reclamation and catalyst manufacturing facility and Accenture, Al Gihaz Holding and Impulse Partners – Consortium for establishing and operating the Spark Digital Center.

Namaat was established during the pandemic at a time when there was much uncertainty. Though Some said it was not good timing to launch Namaat, the company decided to go ahead in the interests of continuing to enhance its efficiency and reliability.

Simply put, Namaat is attracting both global industry leaders and local investors who are building local businesses that will benefit the local economy. In fact, Aramco’s equity participation is just over 10% of the current Namaat portfolio.

Namaat is part of Saudi Arabia’s wider push to modernise its economy, diversifying its income source away from oil dependence.