MOSCOW: Saudi Arabia has fully restored oil output after attacks on its facilities last month and is now focussed on the listing of Saudi Aramco, its energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said.
The kingdom’s oil production capacity now stands at 11.3 million barrels per day, he told a Moscow energy conference on Thursday, adding: “We all rose to the challenge”.
“We have stabilised production capacity, we are at 11.3… We still have the kit and the tools to overcome any future challenges…”
The listing of Aramco is the centrepiece of Saudi Arabian plans to shake up its economy and diversify away from oil.
Bankers from around 20 international and domestic financial institutions are now working on the company’s plan to sell 1% of Aramco in Riyadh before an international sale in 2020 or 2021.
Yemen’s Houthi group on September 14 attacked two Saudi Aramco plants in Abqaiq and Khurais provinces.
Abqaiq is located 60 km (37 miles) southwest of Aramco’s Dhahran headquarters. It contains the world’s largest oil processing plant, handling crude from the giant Ghawar field and for export to terminals Ras Tanura – the world’s biggest offshore oil loading facility – and Juaymah. It also pumps westwards across the kingdom to Red Sea export terminals. Khurais, 190 km further southwest, contains the country’s second-largest oilfield.
The Houthis’ military spokesman, without providing evidence, had said that the attacks had achieved direct hits on refineries at both sites, which are over 1,000 km from the Yemeni capital Sanaa, and pledged a widening of attacks on Saudi Arabia
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