Invest In China Summit 2024, remarks by Amin H. Nasser, President & CEO

Your Excellency Vice President Han Zheng, Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, zǎo shang hǎo, and good morning. 

I am delighted to participate in this Summit as the People’s Republic celebrates its 75th anniversary. 

In just 75 years, China has become one of the world’s foremost economies and returned to its historic role at the high table of world affairs. 

It is truly remarkable, and speaks volumes for the hard work of the Chinese people, and the strategic wisdom of its leadership. 

And we at Aramco are proud to have been part of that economic miracle as one of China’s most reliable suppliers of energy.

But China is not just a market to us. 
And although Aramco was among the leading direct investors in China last year, we are not mere investors.

We want to be a partner of first resort in China’s economic development journey, as new opportunities clearly come into focus. 

Here, we truly appreciate the clarity of His Excellency President Xi’s development vision and philosophy. 

This vision does not merely seek growth, but better growth.

It does not merely seek development, but high quality development. 

And it is clear that by unlocking greater innovation, efficiency, and reliability, while leveraging advanced technologies, high quality development can deliver better lives for China’s people.

So joining hands with China on its high quality development journey occupies a leading position in Aramco’s global investment strategy.

And while we remain committed to China’s long-term energy security, and sizeable investments in energy will continue, our investment and cooperation aspirations extend far beyond energy. 

In fact, we see three groups of win-win investment and cooperation opportunities that would help realize President Xi’s vision. 

First, chemicals. 

China is already a powerhouse representing 40% of global sales.

Aramco has developed a formidable position as well, with our majority ownership of one of the world’s leading chemicals players, SABIC.  

This is crucial to our plans to increase liquids-to-chemicals throughput to four million barrels per day by 2030. 

So I believe both our strategic goals in chemicals are well-aligned. 

And we are already seeing Aramco action on the ground. 

There were two agreements last year for multi-billion dollar liquids to chemicals investments in Zhejiang Province and Liaoning Province. 

We are also pleased that SABIC’s partnership in Fujian is on-track to commence construction of a major chemicals facility.

These three investments alone amount to more than $20 billion.

And we are actively developing additional investment opportunities with our Chinese partners to help build a world-leading chemicals sector. 

Second, I believe there are wide-ranging opportunities to jointly develop advanced greenhouse gas emission reduction technologies.

At Aramco, examples include carbon capture and storage, direct air capture, and circular carbon economy technologies. 

Also, when we talk of emissions reduction and energy transition we should also talk about materials transition. 

Conventional materials like steel, aluminum, and cement already account for almost a quarter of all global CO2 emissions, while demand for materials is expected to double by 2060.

Unless we complement conventional materials with more durable and less GHG emission-intensive ones, national net-zero ambitions are unlikely to be achieved. 

Here it is worth highlighting our NEXCEL center of excellence for non-metallic technologies, right here in Beijing, with our very capable partners at the China Building Materials Academy playing a central role. 
NEXCEL is carrying out outstanding research to develop less greenhouse gas-intensive materials to complement more GHG-intensive conventional materials, especially in construction. 

And of course lower emission energy is clearly important to the climate ambitions of both our nations, where we both have distinct strengths in areas like solar, wind, hydrogen, and electro fuels.

Third, high quality development and global competitiveness will require many other advanced technologies where the opportunities for investment and cooperation are ripe.
 
We both have major ambitions in digital technologies, and Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies in general. 

Another strategic area for collaboration is venture capital. 

Recently, we more than doubled the funding for our venture capital arm to $7.5 billion, with a focus on industrial innovation, disruptive technologies, and sustainability.  

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, when it comes to opportunities for Aramco and China to join hands, the bottom line is that the sky is the limit!

While our energy partnership is set in stone, we see enormous investment and cooperation opportunities to expand this relationship, in line with President’s Xi’s high quality development vision.  

And help turbo-charge China’s efforts to make this goal a reality.

Thank you, and xiè xie.

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