Saudi Aramco, the kingdom’s oil giant, has signed 31 commercial collaborations with a total value of $27.5 billion with suppliers at the annual In Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) Forum in Dhahran.

Saudi Aramco hosted its 4th IKTVA Forum & Exhibition at the Dhahran Expo Center in Dammam, attracting more than 1,000 local and international energy-sector service and equipment suppliers, manufacturers and small and medium enterprises to explore available investment opportunities with the company in the upstream, chemicals, utilities, non-metallic, IT and cybersecurity, and other areas.

The annual flagship event supports the IKTVA programme, Saudi Aramco’s localisation strategy to build a world-class supply chain and establish Saudi Arabia as a globally-competitive energy hub in line with Vision 2030, the kingdom’s economic diversification programme.

IKTVA participation is mandatory for every Saudi Aramco supplier, as the programme aims to attain 70 per cent local content, create thousands of jobs and export 30 per cent of local energy goods and services output by 2021.

Partnerships support local content by contributing to job creation, technology transfer, training and development, and R&D. By 2030, the programme aims to establish 30 training centres helping prepare 360,000 highly skilled graduates for jobs of the future.

In return, companies with a local presence can take advantage of more than SR1.7 trillion being spent by Saudi Aramco on localisation opportunities over the next decade. 

“Our 2018 IKTVA Forum marked the half-way point to our local-content goals, and the event has underlined the win-win nature of our programme with many of our international suppliers increasing their market share or moving their manufacturing to the kingdom,” said Saudi Aramco president & CEO Amin H Nasser.

“We signed $27.5 billion in a total of 31 commercial collaborations. Companies that have invested here are ideally positioned to benefit further with our signing last month of SR125 billion in business at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, much of which will have a direct impact on IKTVA. As of now, 51 percent of each riyal Saudi Aramco earmarks for materials and services is spent locally,” Nasser said.

The annual IKTVA Forum & Exhibition is the leading global energy supply-chain event, driving additional domestic value and maximising sustainable, long-term growth for the Kingdom’s changing economy.