Saudi Aramco Weighs Expanding Storage Capacity After Iran War

By Giulia Petroni

Saudi Aramco is considering expanding its global oil-storage network after the Iran war exposed the importance of strategic reserves in keeping crude flowing to customers.

"Aramco has storage facilities around the world, especially in Asia," Aramco's Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan said on Thursday at the Future Investment Initiative Priority Summit in Rome. "We are thinking seriously of having larger storage facilities all over the world."

Saudi Arabia has leaned on its East-West pipeline network--which carries crude from the Gulf to the Red Sea port of Yanbu--and its storage facilities to meet customer demand after the near-closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway.

Aramco also has more than 2 million barrels a day of spare capacity and can count on a network of crude storage sites both inside Saudi Arabia and overseas. The company doesn't disclose its total storage volumes.

Al-Rumayyan pointed to the strategic stockpiles built by major economies such as China and the U.S. as evidence of the value of reserves during periods of severe disruption. "If it wasn't for this kind of long-term thinking, the world would have been in a really bad situation, even worse than where we were," Al-Rumayyan said.

Write to Giulia Petroni at giulia.petroni@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 18, 2026 05:55 ET (09:55 GMT)