Aramco says technology delivered $5 billion in value last year - Semafor
Saudi Aramco says its investments in artificial intelligence and other technologies are already paying off by cutting costs, boosting efficiency, and enhancing its response to disruptions from the regional war.
At Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran this week, Semafor saw how the company is deploying technology across its operations, and was given a glimpse of the quantum computer it plans to use for more complex tasks in the future.
The state-controlled oil producer’s “realized value” from technology, its measure of the financial impact of its tech investments, exceeded $5 billion last year. That surpassed Aramco’s targets and should grow further in coming years, senior vice president of digital and information technology Sami Al Ajmi said in an interview.
Aramco is using historical data, digital twins, and network monitoring across its facilities to identify problems and speed up recovery times, Al Ajmi said. Technology has helped the producer deal with disruptions to global shipping and restore operations at facilities struck by Iran and its proxies, he added, declining to comment on specific incidents.
Its ability to export crude has been impacted by recent attacks on the East-West Pipeline that gave the kingdom an outlet to global markets beyond the Strait of Hormuz. Exports plunged to the lowest level since 1990 after the Iran-linked Houthi militia in Yemen seized control of much of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and the Bab el-Mandeb strait.
Technology is also helping Aramco monitor cybersecurity threats and establish firewalls and other measures to protect against them. “We’re monitoring the whole cybersecurity threat environment worldwide,” Al Ajmi said, admitting that those threats had recently been “spiking” along with physical threats.
Aramco has previously disclosed cyber attacks in 2012 and 2021.
The company, which reported a $33 billion net income in the second quarter, has made technology a key part of its operations for decades. It now uses AI to reduce the time needed to drill new wells “from months into just a couple days,” Al Ajmi said. The firm’s recently installed quantum computer will be used to improve well-modelling and scheduling the vast numbers of tankers arriving and departing from its ports. It also plans to lease excess quantum capacity to other regional users.
Its Global Optimizer system analyzes Aramco’s refining and petrochemical assets, and the tool takes in news reports, economic data, and demand signals to recommend which markets to prioritize. An internally developed Large Language Model helps employees speed up documentation and bureaucracy, Al Ajmi said.
Technology investments “became as critical as the core business,” said Al Ajmi. “In fact it mushroomed into new business opportunities.” He insisted that AI isn’t destroying jobs but is creating new ones for which workers will need to be retrained.
Aramco manages $7.5 billion of venture capital investments. Its technology unit, Aramco Digital, has agreements with global tech giants including Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Groq — subsequently acquired by Nvidia — to collaborate in Saudi Arabia.
In a sign that the kingdom’s leadership was taking notice of Aramco’s tech strategy, Public Investment Fund tapped Aramco Digital’s former chief executive Tareq Amin last year to lead AI firm HUMAIN. Aramco is now in talks to acquire a stake in HUMAIN, with an announcement expected” soon,” Al Ajmi said.
The potential investment doesn’t mean the Saudi energy giant will prefer its local champion. “We are partner agnostic,” Al Ajmi said. “That’s what makes us diverse, agile, and able to operate in any environment with any model. We’re deploying DeepSeek, we’re deploying OpenAI, we’re deploying all models and we develop our own.”
In the UAE, fellow state-owned energy producer ADNOC is investing in technology to improve operations. The company has paired AI with wall-climbing robots to detect corrosion, predict equipment failures, and reduce shutdown times, Semafor reported.
