Nasser answered a question on Tuesday during Aramco’s 2025 earnings call regarding the company’s medium-term ambitions in the LNG sector following deals in the US and Canada.
“We did take some positions to develop our LNG portfolio and enhance our trading capability. We will continue to monitor attractive opportunities globally,” he said.
Nasser noted that Aramco closed a strategic partnership with EIG’s MidOcean Energy in 2024, which allows the company to enter projects MidOcean acquires.
This includes the acquisition of Tokyo Gas Co.’s interests in a portfolio of Australian integrated LNG projects.
MidOcean completed its deal to buy an additional 15 percent interest in Peru LNG from Hunt Oil, while it also purchased a 20 percent interest in Petronas’ entities in Canada, including a stake in the Shell-led LNG Canada project.
Last year, Aramco also signed a 20-year deal with NextDecade to buy 1.2 mtpa of LNG per year from Train 4 at the Rio Grande LNG facility.
Most recently, Kimmeridge’s Commonwealth LNG signed a 20-year sales and purchase agreement with Aramco to supply the latter with LNG from its planned 9.5 mtpa LNG export project near Cameron, Louisiana.
“We have positioned different projects with a cumulative potential offtake of up to 3.2 million tonnes by 2030. We are also looking at LNG volumes from other non-binding agreements with other global partners that are currently under negotiation,” Nasser said.
These LNG offtake agreements include 1.2 mtpa from NextDecade and the long-term offtake agreement with Commonwealth LNG for 1 mtpa of LNG with an option to increase to 2 mtpa.
Nasser did not provide further details.
He said in August last year that Aramco’s long-term ambition is to have a portfolio of 20 mtpa of LNG capacity.
Strait of Hormuz
Last week, oil and LNG prices and LNG shipping rates surged as the markets experiencied “seismic shocks” in the wake of military action across the Middle East.
State-owned LNG giant QatarEnergy declared force majeure to its affected LNG buyers on March 4, two days after it stopped production of LNG due to military attacks on its operating facilities in Ras Laffan and Mesaieed.
During the call, Nasser also discussed the situation in the Middle East and the Strait of Hormuz due to the ongoing attacks by the US and Israel on Iran and Iran’s retaliatory attacks.
“As you know, the situation at the Strait of Hormuz is blocking sizable volumes of oil from the whole region here. The majority of our exports are sold on a free on board basis to our customers who assume the responsibility of shipping,” he said.
“We are working very closely with these customers and partners to minimize the impact of disruption and to utilize the flexibility that I mentioned earlier through the East-West and through our local and global storage facilities,” he said.
Asked about the possibility of Navy escorting tankers, he said, “Of course, we will support any actions or measures that will help to deliver our products to our customers, the global market, and that will open a window for the partners and for us.”
