Saudi Aramco in investment discussions with Indian companies, says executive: Report

State oil giant Saudi Aramco  is in talks with companies to invest in India, a senior executive told Reuters on Wednesday. 

"Hopefully we will see some announcements soon on investment in Indian companies," Faisal Faqeer, senior vice-president, liquids to chemicals development, downstream, at Saudi Aramco, said at the India Energy Week in Goa, without divulging details of the plans, the newswire reported.

Saudi Aramco has been bolstering its investments in the petrochemicals sector pan Asia, to secure new markets for its crude, the newswire reported. The oil firm sees the growth in chemicals as a mainstay of its downstream expansion strategy, the newswire reported. 

In 2018, Saudi Aramco and Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) joined a consortium of Indian state-run firms to set up a 1.2 million barrels-per-day (bpd) coastal refinery and petrochemical plant in western Maharashtra but the project has faced land acquisition hurdles.

Saudi Arabia is pumping around 9 million bpd, well below its roughly 12 million bpd existing capacity after it cut production as part of an agreement with OPEC and its allies last year, the newswire noted. 

Reuters reported last year that India, the world's third largest oil importer and consumer, had wanted Saudi Arabia's Aramco to participate in its planned strategic petroleum reserve(SPR) programme to strengthen ties with its key oil supplier.