Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy is working with counterparts in other countries to make government owned strategic storage available to Aramco, because the commercial storage the company can access through partners is limited and the larger capacity sits in state owned stocks, chief executive Amin Nasser told Al Arabiya. Aramco already holds commercial storage in South Korea, Japan, the Netherlands and Egypt’s Mediterranean hub of Sidi Kerir, and Nasser said the company wants to double its overseas capacity, particularly in Asia, without giving a timetable or disclosing current capacity.
The push follows a flurry of Houthi attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure, including drone strikes that shut the kingdom’s most important pipeline for several days in September and attacks on the Shaybah oil field and Dammam airport on Wednesday that killed two people at each site, according to Saudi authorities. Brent crude climbed above $112 a barrel on Thursday.