By all accounts, 2013 was a landmark year for Saudi Aramco. Together, the more than 57,000 men and women of Saudi Aramco — drawn from more than 75 countries — achieved remarkable progress on the journey to transform the company into the world’s leading integrated energy and chemicals enterprise. These achievements — record gas production, the completion of Manifa, first chemical sales in China and many others — are detailed in the company’s 2013 Annual Review and Citizenship Report.
The reports do much more than record barrels of oil and cubic feet of gas: They are a window into the company’s heart and mind and help define who we are and where we are going.
Who we are is the world’s most reliable supplier of petroleum energy. In 2013, Saudi Aramco averaged 9.4 million barrels per day of crude oil production — roughly one in every eight barrels produced in the world — energizing the world economy and enabling the further development of the Kingdom’s economy.
Where we are going is more: doing more, achieving more. By maximizing the value of our resources — both our hydrocarbon resources and human resources — we are creating ground-breaking opportunities for the Kingdom and the world. We believe “energy is opportunity,” and this is the theme of the Annual Review and Citizenship Report and one of the driving principles behind the company’s evolving identity.
The Annual Review charts the expansion and diversification of the company’s portfolio, guided by the Strategic Intent, the success of which will be measured by four objectives:
- Shaping our businesses to pursue the commercial activities that will help us achieve our strategic objectives. Our portfolio is expanding in scope and technological prowess to become more integrated, global and diversified.
- Enabling the Kingdom by building on our heritage of providing opportunities for the citizens of Saudi Arabia. We encourage adoption of energy-efficient technologies and practices as we also accelerate development of alternative and unconventional energy sources.
- Optimizing our processes by becoming more agile as we move into new businesses and markets. We are working to respond with greater speed and flexibility to changing business and operational conditions.
- Building our capabilities by developing our talent and deepening our technology base. Through a strategic focus on innovation, we are positioning the company to be a leader in technology creation and a driving force in building a knowledge economy in the Kingdom.
In an engaging mix of photos, graphics and words, the Annual Review showcases key achievements across the value chain, including exploration successes in the Unconventional Gas Program; progress on world-scale gas plants such as Wasit; the expansion of integrated refining and petrochemical capacity with the startup of SATORP and ongoing advances in the YASREF venture and grassroots Jazan Refinery; and potential breakthroughs in R&D such as naphtha-fueled vehicles.
The Annual Review covers the company’s worldwide operations, noting significant contributions from affiliates and ventures in the United States, Europe and Asia. Among the many items of note are the opening of R&D centers in the U.S., progress on potential downstream partnerships in Asia and support for training and development assignments. To help readers grasp the global nature of Saudi Aramco, both reports include maps detailing major offices, export routes and key facilities in Saudi Arabia.
The 2013 Citizenship Report is the fifth such report issued by Saudi Aramco. This edition continues the trend of developing and sharing more performance metrics and targets, and of reporting progress in areas of importance to our stakeholders.
In many ways, Saudi Aramco’s business strategy is a citizenship strategy with long-term ambitions directly tied to positive outcomes for both the company and the Kingdom. This mutually reinforcing approach is emphasized in the Chairman’s Message in the Citizenship Report: “Saudi Aramco’s business objectives and priorities are strongly woven into Saudi Arabia’s broader goals, contributing widely to the Kingdom’s societal, economic and environmental achievements.”
The 2013 Citizenship Report details many of these contributions, tied to the four pillars of the company’s social responsibility strategy: Economy, Community, Environment and Knowledge. The social responsibility strategy, in turn, is tied to the company’s long-term business strategy. Consider, for instance, the Knowledge pillar. The company’s investments in time, expertise and money to help the Kingdom transition to a knowledge economy are designed to develop the next generation of highly skilled workers, benefiting both the Kingdom and the company.
To take just one example, the company’s iThra Youth program is designed to infuse a passion for learning in the Kingdom’s youth. A product of the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, in 2013 a suite of “i-programs” such as iSpark, iRead and iDiscover reached thousands of students and teachers, and through an innovative TV and online science and math series, reached an average of 2.1 million viewers for each of its 13 episodes.
Programs such as iThra Knowledge, which attracted more than 360,000 visitors in Dhahran alone, are touring the Kingdom and inspiring creativity, cultural awareness and intellectual curiosity — qualities needed to help the Kingdom succeed in a globally competitive and diverse economy.
The company’s contributions to the economy, community and environment are just as crucial and the 2013 Citizenship Report provides a wealth of detail about the myriad programs and initiatives aligned with these pillars. Job creation and training, for example, are focal points for the company and projects such as Sadara and the second phase of Petro Rabigh (along with their associated conversion parks), which are poised to generate thousands of direct and indirect jobs while also adding significant revenues.
These mega-projects capture the lion’s share of attention, but no less important is the company’s support of entrepreneurs, small- and medium-sized businesses, vocational training, support for the professional development of women and other programs — all of which are designed to energize the people and ideas that will make Saudi Aramco more innovative, beneficial and productive.
Together, the 2013 Annual Review and Citizenship Report demonstrate our recent achievements and our future plans to enable a vibrant energy sector in the Kingdom and provide access to reliable, sustainable and affordable energy for all.