Top buyers from Saudi Aramco – one of the world’s largest oil producers – will be in Aberdeen later this year to secure services in the subsea sector.
It comes after the Saudi Arabia’s national energy company was handed a $2billion loan guarantee from the UK Government, which was finalised at the end of 2017, for procurement of UK exports.
The line of credit is backed by UK Export and Finance (UKEF), who have confirmed that buyers from Saudi Aramco will be attending a number of UK export affairs events this year.
One of the events will be held in Aberdeen – scheduled for late May or early June – as subsea services is one of the key areas that the company is looking to expand in.
UKEF is a ministerial department which provides overseas purchasers of UK goods and services with loans in order to buy British.
The loan was designed to boost UK exports with sufficient use of UK supply being part of the conditions.
The event in Aberdeen, which will be the first of its kind in Scotland set up by UKEF, will offer exporters the chance to get on Saudi Aramco’s vendor list.
Precise dates for the events are still being finalised.
Tim Palmer, head of oil and gas at UKEF, said: “One of the events will be in Aberdeen because they have indicated that one of the key areas that they want to procure into is subsea, as well as the oil and gas area more generally.
“The natural place to have one of those events is Aberdeen.
“This is a rare opportunity for firms in all levels of the supply chain to meet directly with the Saudi Aramco procurement team.
“We have already signed the line of credit with them, the terms are already in place.
“I can’t go into detail as to how it works but if they want to make full use of that line of credit then they need to continue to procure from the UK so if they want to fill that up they need to buy more from UK companies.”
The $2billion deal has been seen by many as an attempt by the UK to convince Saudi Aramco to host its initial public offering n London.
The oil-rich kingdom is planning to privatise the firm by 5% in what is likely to be the largest IPO in history, in order to raise funds to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy.
However the UK Government says the deal is separate to that and was agreed to boost UK exports.
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