Saudi Arabia’s minister of energy, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, revealed Monday why state-oil company Aramco cut its oil output by 1 million barrels per day (bpd) at the end of last month.
On Jan. 30, Aramco, the world's biggest corporate crude producer, announced that the Energy Ministry had ordered it to halt its oil expansion plan and set a minimum sustained production capacity of 12 million bpd, 1 million bpd below its target announced in 2020 to be reached in 2027. The company nor the Energy Ministry provided a reason for the move at the time.
Speaking about the decision at the IPTC petroleum technology conference in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Prince Abdulaziz said, "I think we postponed this investment simply because … we're transitioning and transitioning means that our oil company became a hydrocarbons company and now an energy company.”
He noted that it didn’t mean the kingdom was “abandoning things,” and was continuing to use its oil rigs.
