Aramco's Nasser says upbeat about vaccine rollout, surge in oil demand from China, East Asia

Saudi Aramco's CEO Amin H. Nasser

Saudi Aramco's President and CEO Amin H. Nasser expressed an upbeat outlook for the situation of oil markets in the short term.

“China and East Asia are seeing strong demand. India is also picking up to pre-pandemic levels. (…) There is an impact in the West and the US, but with the rapid deployment of vaccines we are seeing good cause for optimism," Nasser said.

This came during a virtual panel session held during CERAWeek, which discussed economic and industry trends, as well as the energy transition.

“We were faced with the biggest crisis in a century, but our industry is used to challenging situations. We sharpened our focus on resilience, which gave us the agility to respond quickly,” he stated.

Nasser also added that the COVID-19 pandemic revealed harsh realities for the world, as the small and medium-sized enterprises have been heavily battered, noting that such an impact was also felt in employment.

 "My big worry over the long term is a jobless recovery, when certain jobs are not going to return,” he added.