Saudi Aramco subsidiary opens new UAE office

State oil giant Saudi Aramco’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Aramco Trading Co., has opened its second international office in Fujairah, UAE.

The office opened as part of a global push into new markets to secure buyers for refined products as well as crude, the company said in a statement.

The new facility, Aramco Trading Fujairah (ATF), will handle all Aramco Trading gasoline and fuel oil storage and blending activities.

“We have been in Fujairah for a number of years and as our trading business expands globally – between Singapore, Saudi Arabia, London, Houston – we trade across different time zones, and Fujairah as the center of our blending operations, we thought it is important to be here, physically doing trading as a business in Fujairah,” Abdulaziz M. Al-Judaimi, chairman of Aramco Trading, and Head of Downstream, Saudi Aramco, said.

“At Fujairah, we have a growing business that started with 100,000 barrels per day (b/d) and now we have 350,000 b/d between gasoline and fuel oil.  So, for this reason, Fujairah would be the optimum location that is close to our assets close to the free zone,” added Ibrahim Al-Buainain, President & CEO, Aramco Trading Co.

The inauguration of the new office facility comes only a month after Aramco Trading announced that it had sold its first LNG cargo, the first of many more to come.