According to news on September 2, people familiar with the matter said that in the face of the sharp drop in oil prices and the heavy dividend burden brought by the recent initial public offering (IPO), Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco is reassessing its domestic and overseas expansion plans.

These people familiar with the matter said that Saudi Aramco is slowing down the pace of domestic and foreign investment expansion. Abroad, Saudi Aramco is evaluating a plan to spend US$6.6 billion to expand petrochemical production at the Motiva refinery in Texas. At the same time, Saudi Aramco is also evaluating a large-scale natural gas project in Texas in cooperation with Sempra Energy, and has suspended investment in refineries in India and Pakistan. In Saudi Arabia, Aramco also postponed the plan announced in March to increase crude oil production capacity from the current 12 million barrels to 13 million barrels per day.

Saudi Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.