Aramco plans to store more oil abroad, reducing risk from attack

Aramco is planning to expand its global oil stockpile network after the Iran war exposed the risks of moving crude and other fuels through the Strait of Hormuz.

“We are thinking seriously of having larger storage facilities all over the world,” Aramco Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan said Thursday at the FII Priority Europe summit in Rome, pointing to existing storage hubs in Japan and South Korea.

Al-Rumayyan, the Governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, used the forum to call on European regulators to ease restrictions on foreign investment. He said the Saudi sovereign wealth fund invested 98 billion euros ($113 billion) across Europe and the U.K. between 2017 and 2025, while Aramco spent roughly 80 billion euros with European suppliers.

Reflecting on the growing use of alternative energy sources, Al-Rumayyan said the conflict reinforced the world’s recognition that industry still largely relies on oil and gas.

“In the last decade or so, a lot of push came from the new energy, which is fine,” Al-Rumayyan said. “I think it’s a great addition, but it’s not going to be a substitute for fossil fuel.”

Meanwhile, Mohamed Alabbar, the Emirati businessman who founded Emaar Properties and built Dubai’s Burj Khalifa tower, said that European countries with unruly governments might learn something from how Gulf countries have prospered. “We are losing trust in democracy,” Alabbar told the FII audience.

“Why are these people so upset with us in the Middle East?” he asked. “They have two political parties; we only have one, so that’s okay. There is not much difference. The only difference is that even if you have two political parties, say 51% get the vote, and nobody gives a sh*t about the 49%.”