Anti-trust regulations may delay SABIC's stake purchase: Nasser

Saudi Aramco chief executive officer Amin Nasser said Tuesday that anti-trust regulations abroad would mean that the company’s planned acquisition of a stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) may take longer than expected.

"We are currently in negotiations, and you cannot list Aramco when you are going through a major transaction. After we finalize the deal with PIF, we need regulatory approvals from 50 countries and we need to reflect the deal in our balance sheet,” he told the Future Investment Initiative (FII) 2018 in Riyadh on Tuesday.

He reiterated that the Saudi government was committed to Aramco’s initial public offering by end of 2020, but the timing depended on market conditions and other factors.

The acquisition of the stake, currently held by the Public Investment Fund, will help Aramco meet its aspiration to be a leader in chemicals, Nasser added.

Separately, he revealed the world's largest oil exporter's strategy was to shift two million barrels per day of its production to petrochemicals and hoped it could raise that to three million barrels per day.