DHAHRAN: Saudi Aramco plans to boost investments in refining and petrochemicals to secure new markets for its crude, and sees growth in chemicals as central to its downstream strategy to lessen the risk of a slowdown in oil demand.
Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer, is expanding its footprint globally by signing downstream deals and boosting the capacity of its plants, ahead of an initial public offering next year — the largest IPO in history.
The state oil giant is moving ahead with multi-billion-dollar projects in China, India and Malaysia and aims to finalize new partnerships this year, Abdulaziz Al-Judaimi, Aramco’s senior vice president for downstream, told Reuters.
Aramco plans to raise its refining capacity to between 8 million and 10 million barrels per day, from some 5 million bpd now, and double its petrochemicals production by 2030, he added. Aramco pumps around 10 million bpd of crude oil.
“Our strategy is very simple. We want to be at 8 to 10 million barrels per day of participated (refining) capacity ... (and) we are going forward by trying to be a top leader in chemicals by 2040,” Judaimi said.
“The market that we want to grow in ... has to be growing, a strong market, with good demand and of course these assets have to be integrated to the whole value chain of the downstream,” he said in an interview at Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran.
To help it reach these targets, Aramco has entered a 50 percent joint venture with three Indian refiners to build a $44 billion, 1.2-million-bpd refinery integrated with petrochemical facilities on India’s west coast.
Aramco has said it may introduce a strategic partner to share its 50 percent stake in the Indian refining venture.
Judaimi said Aramco was working with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) toward securing a partnership. It would be the first time for the two national oil companies to join hands in an international venture.
“We are now finalizing the MOU (with ADNOC) that would cover certain commercial principles between us,” he said, adding that the memorandum of understanding would be finalized this year. He said front-end engineering for the project could start by early 2019.
Apart from India, Aramco is also taking a 50 percent stake in Petronas’ huge RAPID project in the southern Malaysian state of Johor.
Aramco hopes this will help it dominate supplies in India and Malaysia, two of the world’s fastest-growing oil markets after China, and where growth potential is bigger than in other, more developed regions. Aramco is eyeing three separate refining and petrochemical projects in China, Judaimi said.
“Asia has to have the lion’s share ... We believe markets east of the Suez Canal will continue to grow, including the Middle East as well,” Judaimi said, adding that the United States is “another market we want to grow in.”
In April, Aramco said it was integrating a petrochemicals business into its subsidiary Motiva, the United States’ biggest oil refinery.
Aramco is strengthening its refining role in China, one of its biggest customers. It has a refinery joint venture with Sinopec and Exxon Mobil and is in talks with CNPC to finalize the purchase of a stake in a 260,000-bpd refinery in Yunnan.
Judaimi said he expects to take a final investment decision on the Yunnan refinery, which is operational, by the end of this year.
“We are in the final stage of negotiations. It’s like building a house — the last touches take much longer.”
Aramco plans to build a 300,000-bpd refinery with China’s Norinco. Judaimi said he expects to finish front-end engineering for the Norinco project by mid-2019, following which the company will take its final investment decision.
Judaimi said Aramco had also started negotiations for a third refinery in China.
“It’s a smart refinery with higher conversion of liquids into chemicals,” he said, declining to give details.
’LAST MAN STANDING’
Aramco has been integrating its refining with petrochemicals to help the company expand its market share and refined products portfolio.
The company is betting on growing demand for fuel in India and Southeast Asia but also shifting more into petrochemicals in case those consumption forecasts prove too optimistic.
“In the long term, we are thinking of investing more into chemicals,” he said.
“We know the world needs chemicals ... as populations grow they need more plastic,” he added.
One centerpiece of Aramco’s push into chemicals is a project it is building at home with Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), the world’s fourth-biggest petrochemicals company.
The $20 billion project with SABIC is to build a complex that converts crude oil into chemicals directly, bypassing the refining stage. Judaimi said Aramco would make a final investment decision by the end of 2019.
“This is a very critical program and we are going to do all we can to make it happen,” Judaimi said.
“We believe we are the last man standing in terms of energy supply. Our cost position on the upstream side, our reliability, our location and our infrastructure are all competitive advantages to us.”
Saudi Aramco eyes partnerships as it expands refining, petrochems
Saudi Aramco eyes partnerships as it expands refining, petrochems
- Saudi Aramco plans to boost investments in refining and petrochemicals to secure new markets for its crude
- Aramco is expanding its footprint globally by signing downstream deals and boosting the capacity of its plants
AI’s shift toward proactive healthcare
- Experts reveal how AI is reducing burnout and streamlining workflows
JEDDAH: Artificial intelligence is increasingly moving from the margins of healthcare innovation into its operational core. Rather than replacing clinicians, AI is being deployed to address persistent challenges across health systems, from administrative overload and staff burnout to fragmented data and inefficient patient flow.
Speaking to Arab News, Abbes Seqqat, chief executive officer of Rain Stella Technologies, and Eric Turkington, chief product officer, discussed how AI is already transforming healthcare delivery — and why its impact is most meaningful when embedded directly into clinical workflows rather than treated as a standalone tool.
Seqqat describes AI’s role as accelerating a structural shift in healthcare delivery. “AI is accelerating the shift in healthcare from reactive to proactive care, because AI fundamentally helps detect, analyze and predict,” he said, noting that many health systems lack the resources to perform these tasks at scale.
While AI use cases in healthcare are broad, Seqqat emphasized that the most effective applications today focus on operational and clinical fundamentals, including reducing administrative burden, identifying patient risks earlier, and capturing clinical data more reliably and in real time.
RST’s portfolio reflects this approach, spanning surgical data capture and workflow automation, cloud-based electronic medical records, and health information exchange. Across these systems, the common goal is improving data quality and usability so clinicians can spend less time managing information and more time delivering care.
According to Turkington, RST’s systems rely on a mix of established and emerging AI technologies.
“Across the portfolio, we are using a wide range of AI and predictive technologies, from voice technology to reliably capture clinician inputs, to large language models that analyze and act on collected data,” he said.
A key focus has been adapting AI to regional and clinical realities. Voice models, for example, have been trained on UAE and GCC accents and grounded in medical terminology to improve accuracy in real-world settings. RST also uses retrieval-augmented generation and multi-agent AI architectures, allowing different AI components to perform specialized tasks such as classifying surgical notes, identifying unusual events, or assisting with billing and coding, Turkington explained.
DID YOU KNOW?
• AI can detect, analyze, and predict patient risks faster than traditional methods.
• Systems like Equinox use voice input and predictive analytics to actively support clinical decisions.
• AI assistants provide real-time updates, automate documentation, and improve coordination in operating theaters.
One of the central concerns around AI adoption is whether it adds complexity to already demanding clinical roles. Seqqat argues the opposite should be the goal.
“For nurses and frontline staff, AI’s greatest contribution is removing the invisible administrative friction that leads to burnout,” Seqqat said.
In operating theaters, AI systems can replace manual coordination methods such as phone calls and whiteboards by providing real-time situational awareness. By automating updates, anticipating delays, and serving as an on-demand clinical notepad, AI reduces cognitive load and allows staff to remain focused on patient care, he explained.
RST’s voice-enabled assistant, Orva, is designed specifically for perioperative environments.
Turkington said it enables hands-free documentation and coordination, helping surgical teams manage schedules and resources more effectively.
By capturing live updates through voice input, Orva can surface delays, flag bottlenecks, and prompt coordination between departments. It also assists with documentation and coding, reducing errors and supporting more accurate reimbursement— an area where incomplete records often create downstream challenges.
Electronic medical records remain central to healthcare delivery, but Turkington noted that AI can move them beyond passive data repositories.
“We designed Equinox as an EMR that enables you to spend less time with the software and more time with patients,” Turkington said.
Through voice input, automated documentation from visual annotations, and AI-generated pre-visit summaries, the system can actively support clinicians rather than slow them down. Predictive analytics, such as identifying no-show risks or highlighting care gaps, further shift EMRs toward decision-support tools rather than administrative obligations.
Both executives stressed that AI’s effectiveness depends heavily on data access and quality. Seqqat pointed to interoperability as a prerequisite rather than an afterthought.
“AI is only as powerful as the data it can access,” he said, adding that fragmented records limit both clinical insight and system-wide learning.
Health information exchanges, such as RST’s Constellation platform, enable patient data to be viewed longitudinally across providers. AI can then assist with patient identity matching and population-level analysis, allowing trends and risks to be identified across large datasets.
Turkington shared an example from an operating theatre where AI helped prevent cascading delays. When a surgical case ran late, a nurse verbally updated Orva that the patient was ready to exit. The system alerted the recovery unit, analyzed schedule conflicts, and prompted management to reassign staff before delays affected subsequent procedures.
Opinion
This section contains relevant reference points, placed in (Opinion field)
By tagging the cause of the delay and feeding that data into predictive models, the system helped prevent similar issues in the future — without additional manual coordination.
According to Seqqat, the primary returns from AI adoption come from combining efficiency with financial accuracy. Streamlined workflows allow providers to treat more patients without compromising care, while improved documentation reduces revenue leakage.
Looking ahead, Seqqat sees AI becoming central to Saudi Arabia’s healthcare transformation. He described its role as advancing smart hospitals, predictive patient flow, and precision medicine aligned with Vision 2030 goals.
“The role of AI in Saudi Arabia’s healthcare sector is evolving from a supporting technology to a foundational pillar of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 transformation. Over the next few years, we expect to see AI move into the realm of smart hospitals, where predictive analytics optimize patient flow and AI-driven precision medicine leverages the Saudi Genome Program to provide hyper-personalized care. By unifying national health data and automating complex administrative workflows, AI will enable a more proactive, value-based healthcare model that improves patient outcomes and operational efficiency across the country.”
