Aramco MOUs include recycling, waste efforts

Saudi-Arabia based petrochemical firm Aramco has announced what it calls a major expansion of its industrial investment program, Aramco Namaat, with the signing of 22 new memoranda of understanding (MoUs) and one joint venture (JV) agreement focusing on four aspects of its business: sustainability, technology, industrial and energy services and advanced materials.

Namaat translates loosely as “collective growth” in Arabic, Aramco says, adding that the program aims to create new value and drive economic expansion and diversification.

Among the announced MOUs were two with a clear recycling or waste management aspect. Aramco, Netherlands-based Shell & AMG Recycling and Saudi Arabia-based United Company for Industry have signed what the oil firm calls “a trilateral MoU on metals reclamation and catalyst manufacturing.”

Another MOU has been reached with France-based Veolia, which Aramco calls “an exclusive MOU to confirm the commercial feasibility of establishing a world-class integrated waste management company, alongside a strategic indigenous knowledge stakeholder.”

Aramco lists sustainability as one of the four drivers of its Nammat program, saying sustainability from its perspective involves maintaining its low upstream carbon intensity level, implementing circular economy concepts to reduce waste and striving to pursue emissions reductions through technologies such as carbon capture.