Welcome to the Saudi Aramco's full year 2025 results call. We'll be holding a question and answer session following the presentation. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad at any time. I should now hand you over to Mr. Peter Hutton to begin.
Hello, and welcome to Saudi Aramco's full year 2025 earnings call. I'm Peter Hutton, Head of Investor Relations at Aramco. I'm pleased to be joined today by Amin Nasser, President and CEO, and Ziad Al-Murshed, Executive Vice President and CFO. We have a lot to cover today with a detailed update followed by a question and answer session. We expect the call to last around an hour. Please refer to this cautionary statement on forward-looking information, our regulatory filings, and our website for more details. With that, I will hand the call over to Amin.
Thank you, Peter, and welcome everyone, and we appreciate you joining us, especially at this time. Before I cover our 2025 performance, first, let me speak about the current events in the region since last week. The situation continues to evolve and the safety of our people and our operations remain our highest priorities. Aramco has a long track record dealing with such complex challenges as a result of having comprehensive contingency plans and a highly capable and well-trained workforce. We remain vigilant while working in close coordination with government organizations and agencies on contingencies as and when required. Aramco is advantaged by having significant operational flexibility and optionality throughout our hydrocarbon operations network, allowing us to navigate through disruptions, which might not be the case for others.
For decades, we have demonstrated our resilience and ability to deliver to our customers safely and reliably, and continue to do so. As we continue to deal with the rapidly evolving events, we remain focused on safety and meeting our commitments. Thanks to our highly capable Aramco employees and also our stakeholders, including our customers, our partners, and our government agencies during this crucial time. With that, let me turn to our 2025 performance and our further growth prospects. In 2025, we delivered consistent operational performance in our major growth projects and industry-leading earnings while increasing shareholder returns. We did all of this while achieving strong safety performance with the lowest total recordable case rate since our IPO. This is a testament to our strategy and focused execution, and I am grateful to the entire Aramco team who made this possible.
At the same time, Aramco delivered advantaged growth, strong cash generation, and increased dividends while reducing gearing year-on-year. Our adjusted net income was $105 billion, more resilient than any of the five IOCs, and our ROACE was around 20%, twice their average. This benefited from operational excellence and flexibility. Fourth quarter 2025 liquid production was 11.1 MMbpd , 1 MMbpd higher than the fourth quarter of 2024, reflecting our strength and flexibility in execution. While in the downstream, we achieved record refining availability and throughput. During the year, we delivered four world-class upstream projects, including Marjan and Berri crude oil increments, Tanajib gas plant, and Jafurah Phase 1.
Together, this enhanced our operational reliability and adaptability, further extending our production capacity in liquid and gas, and were delivered at a level of capital spending lower than last year. Since 2023, we have unlocked $11.3 billion in technology realized value, of which $5.3 billion was in 2025, all verified by a third party. In 2025, operating cash flow was $136 billion, which was slightly higher than 2024, despite an $11 drop in oil prices, and gearing was 3.8%. This makes our balance sheet the strongest in the sector and gives us the ability to capture value through the cycle. We are on track with our plans to deliver further operating cash flow through our gas growth and downstream business with up to a combined $25 billion in 2030.
We also have readily available crude production capacity, which could generate up to around $22 billion based on 2025 average prices. In 2025, capital investment reached $52 billion, $1 billion lower than 2024, and 2026 guidance is $50 billion-$55 billion. Today, we have announced that we are growing our sustainable and progressive base dividend for the fourth time in a row by 3.5% in Q4 to around $22 billion. Which is now up 17% over the past four years. This is a testament to the strength of our balance sheet and our confidence in the future. In addition, we have announced a $2 billion-$3 billion share buyback program over the next 18 months, primarily to support our employee share purchase plan, where participation levels continue to rise.
The timing of this also reflects confidence in our growth strategy and the long-term value of the company. Turning to the macro environment, we have been clear and consistent that demand is strong. Despite geopolitical tension and tariffs, the global economy in 2025 grew faster than most expected, up 3.1% year-on-year. Twenty twenty-five demand was over 106 MMbpd , another record high, and we continue to see upward revision in estimates. Notably, independent demand estimates since April last year for both 2024 and 2025 have been revised up by an average of 0.7 MMbpd and 0.5 MMbpd respectively, and we expect this trend to continue.
Twenty twenty-six demand growth is expected to be 1.1 MMbpd -1.4 MMbpd based on various forecasters, with SNB estimating it to be 107.3 MMbpd. This fundamental strength is reflected in healthy physical and trading activity. As we approach the peak demand season in Q2 and Q3, markets are already tightening. Refinery utilization rates climbing to meet demand. The market continues to absorb OPEC+ unwinding while inventories remain near five-year low. Given the current geopolitical situation, we may see inventories eroding and being drawn down faster as shipments are being curtailed from the region. This is at a time when current global spare capacity remains extremely low. Looking further ahead, underinvestment in new supply continues to shape a structurally tight market.
According to external analysis, it is over a decade since the industry has approved resources for development to meet annual production. Last year, that level was just 50% and expected additional approved resources in 2026 come to lower than 20%. Nearer-term supply has been supported by higher shale production, but this accelerates depletion and estimates for production this year are flat. The average reserve life of the industry majors is around 10 years and continues to decline. With conventional projects typically taking five to seven years and exploration timelines even longer. We see the projects we are bringing on stream, the longevity and flexibility they bring as key. We are delivering advantaged growth across all our businesses. Including our lowest cost and upstream carbon intensity among IOCs provides durable competitive advantage.
With 2 MMbpd of readily available spare capacity, we have unmatched flexibility to capture demand upside. Every 1 MMbpd that we bring online has the potential to generate around $10 billion-$11 billion in incremental operating cash flow based on 2025 average prices. In gas, our target of around 80% growth in sales gas production capacity by 2030 versus 2021 production level is supported by our exclusive supplier position in the Kingdom at an attractive double-digit rates of return. Our 2030 gas production is expected to reach around 6 MMboepd , which is more than the total hydrocarbon output any other IOC today. This is expected to generate around $12 billion-$15 billion in incremental annual operating cash flow in 2030.
Downstream, we expect our transformation program and integrated synergies to generate an incremental $8 billion-$10 billion in annual operating cash flow in 2030 while we selectively rebase liquids to chemical investment with low equity and high crude placement opportunities. In transition minerals, we achieved a strong 90% lithium recovery rate from our pilot projects, a critical milestone supporting our long-term ambitions, where we expect to achieve 15%-20% IRRs. In the new energies, we have unique competitive and cost advantages and have made good progress with 7.8 GW solar and wind capacity that are operational and under development. We have the potential to increase our current 12- GW target to 15 GW-18 GW equity capacity. Our disciplined approach to capital allocation is underscored in hydrogen, where we will only proceed with the long-term offtake agreement.
We are bringing on three of the largest and lowest cost upstream projects anywhere in the world. The Marjan crude oil increment is on stream. Berri crude oil increment has completed construction and commenced water injection operations. Zuluf is on track for completion this year, and the Dammam Phase 2 is also progressing on track for completion in 2027. These projects enhance our upstream portfolio's flexibility and resilience while maintaining our diversified crude mix. On the exploration front, we discovered six new fields and two new reservoirs of Arabian oil. These additions will further support our already industry-leading liquid reserve life of more than 50 years. In our gas business, we have unrivaled advantages of being the exclusive gas supplier in what is now the sixth-largest gas market globally. We made significant progress in 2025 in expanding our gas production.
Jafurah Phase 2 was successfully commissioned with the first gas in December 2025. The Tanajib gas plant also commenced operation. The two plants will provide about 1.3 billion scfd of combined sales gas production capacity. Looking ahead, we remain on track with our major gas project. Jafurah Phase 2 and the Fadhili gas plant expansion are progressing well for 2027 completion, while the Master Gas System Phase 3 is advancing, set to add 3.15 billion scfd of transmission capacity by 2028. Our Jafurah midstream transaction unlocked $11 billion in value and is an indicator of the strong investor confidence in our assets and strategy. Internationally, we secured up to 3.2 mtpa of LNG volumes through offtake agreements, enhancing our access to high-growth markets.
Looking to downstream, 2025 was a year of a strong operational delivery. Our availability and throughput increased to record levels, allowing us to maintain an optimal proportion of our crude utilized within our downstream system, even with higher upstream crude volumes and capture stronger refining margins. Additionally, we have achieved our 2025 target of securing SABIC synergies, $3.8 billion now delivered. Downstream transformation has been progressing well. From a 2021 baseline to 2025, the program captured around $5 billion in incremental financial benefits. In 2025 specifically, a new wave of initiatives were introduced to further enhance manufacturing efficiencies, implement innovative digital solutions, optimize molecules, and deploy cost reduction initiatives, all of which generated approximately $1.2 billion in EBIT versus 2024.
We are expanding our global retail and branding footprint in the Philippines and Chile to capture more value. We are also progressing toward our long-term target of 4 MMbpd of liquid to chemicals capacity with Shaheen in South Korea, Amiral in Saudi Arabia, and HAPCO project in China, which are under development and on track for completion in 2026 and 2027, potentially adding 400,000 barrels per day of liquid to chemical capacity. Our Gulei Phase 2 investment in Fujian, China reinforce our position at the heart of the world's largest petrochemical market. By the end of 2025, we had already achieved 45% of our long-term liquid to chemical target. We continue to exercise discipline in a challenging petrochemical environment by optimizing and extending the timeline of some of our downstream projects.
This means that our investment in downstream will be smaller portion of our total future plan. In 2025, we took decisive steps to capture value across the entire hydrocarbon chain, and we are on track to generate an incremental $8 billion-$10 billion in operating cash flow in 2030. Aramco has already demonstrated that it is uniquely positioned to generate more shareholder value via our extensive data generated over nearly a century and our industry lowest cost advantage. While many other companies describe the extent of their efforts, we are going a step further in showing quantifiable results with $11.3 billion of TRV generated over the last three years, mostly from CapEx avoidance. $5.3 billion of this was generated in 2025, with around half from AI solutions.
In 2026, we are targeting an additional $3 billion-$5 billion in technology realized value. The tangible outcomes of our 2025 TRV initiatives are evident in key areas. For example, we are able to lower project operating costs and capital expenditure through reduced drilling time and the use of AI and digitalization in upstream operations. We are growing new offerings through upgrading feedstock to higher-value chemical products and launching new premium fuels with an in-house developed formula to capture higher margins. Finally, our plans to invest in HUMAIN will further strengthen our AI capability. On that note, let me hand over to Ziad to provide more details about our 2025 financial performance.
Thank you, Amin Nasser. Twenty twenty-five was another year of disciplined execution, operational momentum, and strong financial performance, all delivered against a backdrop of continued market volatility and lower crude oil prices. Despite these headwinds, we once again demonstrated the strength and resilience of our business model while boosting shareholder returns. Our adjusted net income was $104.7 billion in 2025, and it is about the quality of earnings as well as the scale. These results are the most resilient when compared to our peers, down only 5% when Brent was down 14%, though our peers were down between 10% and 26%. Our 12-month rolling ROACE was approximately 20%. This is indeed industry-leading and more than double the IOC average, even though this includes around $100 billion of assets under construction that are not yet operational.
Excluding this, our ROACE would have been around 4 percentage points higher. Upstream adjusted EBIT was solid at $195.5 billion, reflecting the contribution from higher volumes and continued strong cost focus despite a 14% drop in oil prices. Downstream adjusted EBIT was $10 billion, up more than 4x , mainly due to our higher refining availability, which captured higher refining margins during the year and benefits from synergies and our transformation initiatives. We booked around $8.6 billion of impairments and fair value impacts from assets held for sale in 2025, mostly relating to our SABIC investment. These are non-cash items that do not affect our underlying financials. Operating cash flow was strong at $136.2 billion, which is higher than 2024.
Through our disciplined approach to capital management, our capital investments totaled $52.2 billion at the bottom end of the guidance we provided at Q3 of $52 billion-$55 billion and around $1 billion lower than 2024. Despite lower crude oil prices, free cash flow remains strong at $85.4 billion. Our balance sheet remains a key market differentiator, with gearing improved to 3.8%, reflecting our prudent financial management and capital discipline. In 2025, we also successfully issued a total of $8 billion in new bonds and Sukuk at advantaged rates, reaffirming our disciplined access to global capital markets and further strengthening our liquidity position. Now, zooming into our quarterly performance. Our adjusted net income was $25.1 billion in Q4, robust and consistent year-on-year.
Again, this reflects more resilience than the IOCs' average drop of 7% over the same period. Our Upstream adjusted EBIT was $47.9 billion in Q4. This is a resilient result, again, driven by higher volumes despite a decline in realized oil prices of 12% year-on-year and 9% quarter-on-quarter. In Downstream, adjusted EBIT was $3 billion, continuing its improving trend over the last five quarters, mainly driven by our higher availability, which gives us the ability to capture higher refining margins as well as ongoing synergies and transformation initiatives. Despite a drop of about $9 per barrel year-on-year in crude oil prices, our operating cash flow of $40.8 billion in Q4 was up by 14% year-on-year, and it was also up 13% quarter-on-quarter, reflecting the strength of our underlying business.
Capital discipline continues to be a hallmark of our approach. Capital investments for the fourth quarter totaled $15.3 billion to finish the year at the lower end of our guidance. We generated some $27.5 billion of free cash flow, up 27% year-on-year and up 17% quarter-on-quarter. As Amin mentioned earlier, our growth programs are firmly on track, and we are building momentum across our portfolio with resilience and ability to generate strong cash flows in different macro environments. Our operating cash generating ability is ahead of our peers, and we expect significant further upside based on both our growth and transformation programs. We delivered a significant operating cash flow uplift of $11 billion in 2025 when normalizing our 2024 operating cash flows for 2025 average oil prices.
This takes our 2025 total operating cash flow to $136 billion, which was mainly driven by higher crude oil production. We have the ability to develop strong incremental operating cash flows to achieve our targets in 2030. In liquids, for illustration, if we were to use half of our available spare crude oil capacity in 2030 at 2025 average oil prices, that would generate an additional $10 billion-$11 billion. Combined with the incremental $20 billion-$25 billion from gas and downstream businesses, that would equate to around $30 billion-$36 billion of additional operating cash flows, which would be 22%-25% higher annualized operating cash flows, providing further upside potential for future distributions. Our approach to capital allocation has always been focused on long-term growth in underlying free cash flow.
We have provided guidance on CapEx and external investments at the start of each year and have demonstrated an excellent track record of delivering at the low end of our guidance range. We also said that you should expect CapEx to peak around the middle of the decade. Our CapEx was $53.3 billion in 2024, $52.2 billion in 2025, and we are guiding $50 billion-$55 billion for 2026. We also said that if we found value-accretive additional opportunities, we would look at these with financial discipline if they expanded our advantaged opportunity set. The partnership in HUMAIN is such an opportunity where we are progressing negotiations, and we expect to come back to you in due course with more details. Our new CapEx mix aligns directly with our medium-term growth priorities.
Around 65%-70% to Upstream oil and gas, where we see strong growth and visible returns. Around 20%-25% to Downstream, reflecting a large reduction from previous plans, mainly resulting from rephased liquids to chemicals investments. Approximately 5%-10% in new energies and other areas. This excludes our planned investment in HUMAIN. Our capital focus is always about investing in the right things at the right time and at the right level. We have unmatched cash flow generation capability across cycles. More than 60% of our operating cash flow was available for shareholder distributions and external investments, representing the highest cash availability compared with IOCs while maintaining the lowest gearing in the peer group with strong investment-grade credit rating. This unique combination of financial strength and flexibility enables our world-class distributions.
Today, we announced an increase in our quarterly base dividends by 3.5% to $21.9 billion to be distributed later this month, projecting an annual base dividend of around $88 billion. This reflects a 17% increase over four years, demonstrating Aramco's ability to deliver a sustainable and progressive base dividend. As mentioned, we have also announced a share buyback program of up to $3 billion, supporting the rising demand of our employee share purchase plan, the timing of which reflects our confidence in our growth strategy and value. As always, dividends to be paid in the rest of the year remain subject to board approval. On that note, let me hand you back to Amin.
Thank you, Ziad. Before we move into Q&A, I want to leave you with a clear message. We aim to maximize shareholder value through our unique ability to consistently implement our strategy. Our 2025 results demonstrated once again the quality and high returns across cycles. We are delivering growth, increasing shareholder returns with reduced gearing. Our upstream production growth is on track, and we are rephasing liquids to chemical investment with capital discipline. Our gas growth target is designed to capture greater value in a captive market with demand upside from the Kingdom's buildup of data centers. We are delivering strong operational and financial momentum in the near term and accelerating value growth into the longer term. With that, thank you for your attention. Ziad, Peter, and I are pleased to take your questions.
Thank you. To ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. When asking a question, please ensure you are unmuted locally. I shall now hand back over to Mr. Hutton.
Thank you very much. Our first question comes from Iyad Ghulam at SNB. Iyad, go ahead.
As-salamu alaykum. First of all, I would like to extend my appreciation to the management team and the broader Aramco organization. The company's ability to manage such situation while maintaining safety, operational continuity demonstrates a very high level of readiness and resilience, which we are very proud of. My question relates to export flexibility. Could you elaborate on the company's current ability to redirect crude exports to the East-West Pipeline and the Red Sea ports if needed? Specifically, how much spare capacity exists in the pipeline and the western export terminal? And to what extent can inventories held outside Saudi Arabia support export continuity, given the current situation?
Thank you, Iyad. You know, we —East-West Pipeline, even before the crisis, was in operation. Immediately as the ports were starting to close, we ramped up production through the East-West Pipeline, which has a capacity up to 7 MMbpd, most of it for export. Approximately 2 million barrels of that will be utilized supplying existing refineries in the western regions, which also export some of the products to the global market. We are ramping up. We should be reaching capacity in a couple of days. It's all building on the repositioning of tankers from the east to west. You know, this crisis happened all of a sudden. Tankers need to reposition to the West Coast for loading, and this is what we are doing, and that's why we are ramping the production.
We are on more than double what we started with. As I said, within a couple of days, we should be reaching the capacity on the East-West Pipeline, pending an availability of vessels which are currently en route. With regard to our storage capacity, we don't really disclose the volumes for commercial reasons. We monitor closely the storage facilities that is available also in Kingdom and out of the Kingdom. We have different storage facilities in Japan, in Korea, in Netherlands, in Rotterdam, through for the Mediterranean and beyond.
We have multiple sites for storing our crudes out of Kingdom, and we are capitalizing right now while we are ramping up to balance our export and meeting our customers' requirement through both the East-West and the global and local storage that we have at hand.
Thank you, Iyad. The next question is from Martijn Rats at Morgan Stanley. Go ahead, Martijn.
Morning. I wanted to ask you about the idea of escorted tanker convoys. There is some historical precedent for this. This has been tried in the late 1980s, albeit I understand at a smaller scale. The White House has once again sort of floated the idea of having a Navy escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz as a possible solution. I was wondering if you could say a few words about well, what do you think of it, the capacity that that would sort of create. Is that possible at the scale that is required logistical tonnages perhaps? Can you perhaps share with us your view on that particular plan?
Thank you, Martijn. As you know, the situation at the Strait of Hormuz is blocking sizable volumes of oil from the whole region here. Majority of our exports are sold on freight- on- board basis to our customers who assume the responsibility of shipping. We are working very closely with these customers and partners to minimize the impact of disruption and to utilize the flexibility that I mentioned earlier through the East-West and through our local and global storage facility. Of course, we will support any actions or measures that will help to deliver our products to our customers, the global market, and that will open a window for us and for the partners.
Thank you, Martijn. The next question is from Biraj Borkhataria of RBC.
Hi there. A couple of questions, please. The first one just on your LNG ambitions. You know, recently bought into a Canadian LNG project. Just wondering if you have now sort of defined more clearly what your medium-term ambitions are in the LNG space. Secondly, just on the inorganic part of the CapEx budget, you came in at the low end of the guide. Just maybe if you could give some perspectives on the market and the opportunities that come up and any particular reasons why you didn't do more on that front. Thank you.
Thank you. We did take some positions to develop our LNG portfolio and enhance our trading capability. We will continue to monitor attractive opportunities globally. We closed in the first quarter of 2024 a strategic partnership with MidOcean Energy that allow us to enter into projects that MidOcean acquire. This includes the acquisition of the Peru LNG project, also the acquisition of stake in [Envero] LNG. In September of 2025, a 20-year sales and purchase agreement with NextDecade was also activated for LNG offtake of 1.2 million tons from Train 4 Rio Grande LNG facility, Texas, USA. We have positioned different projects with a cumulative potential offtake of up to 3.2 million tons by 2030. We also looking at LNG volume from other non-binding agreement with other global partners that are currently under negotiation.
With regard to the capital programs, Ziad.
Biraj, thank you for the question. Yes, we did indeed come at the low end of the range. This is a further demonstration of our capital discipline and flexibility. We are on track to deliver our major investment program. The low end not coming because of impact on the actual project. We've told you for some time now that we expect to see current opportunities.
Towards the middle of the decade. We are in the middle of the decade, so what we're spending on the current opportunities is, in fact, peaking. We also said that if we find additional opportunities that we would look at these, you know, as our shareholders would expect us to, in order to create shareholder value, of course, with the financial discipline, you know, and where we have an advantaged opportunity. Partnership with HUMAIN that you've seen us talk about recently is one of these opportunities. We're looking at it. Other than, you know, with the existing opportunity sets, we are peaking like we said.
Thank you, Biraj. Next question is from Michele Della Vigna of Goldman Sachs. Go ahead, Michele.
Thank you very much. Congratulations on the strong and resilient result, and I hope all of the Aramco employees are safe during this conflict. I wanted to ask you, in the worst-case scenario, where the Strait of Hormuz stayed closed for a prolonged period of time, and you had to bring down oil production to the 7 MMbpd you can shift west, how quickly would you be able to ramp back up to the 10 MMbpd, once the Strait of Hormuz is reopened? I was wondering if there had been any physical damage that may take longer to repair in case of a full reopening. Thank you.
Thank you, Michele. You know, we can ramp up in days, and not weeks for sure and, to reach whatever, when we talk about, we have an ample spare capacity as well, and in certain areas, we use restriction on wells rather than shutdowns. Even the ones that we exercise shutdowns, we can put it in days and, to the market, so it should not be an issue for us. The first part of your question regarding,
That was it. If you had to go down to seven.
As I said, you know, we are ramping up to the seven as ships, tankers, relocate to the western regions. Now with your question with regard to if this takes a long time, that will have serious impact on the global economy. We're talking about almost 20% of the global supply, 17 million-18 million barrels that comes through the Strait of Hormuz. If you just roughly look at it, even with our ability to export through the western region, you're talking about close to 350 million barrels of interruptions or disruptions that will come off the market. Considering that we are at the bottom, at the lower end of the five-year average, that will have a certain ramification.
Thank you, Michele. The next question is from Henri Patricot at UBS. Go ahead, Henri.
Everyone, thank you for the update. My question is the first one, a follow-up on the flexibility in the system when it comes to your refineries, especially on the East Coast from the places that are going via Hormuz to reduce, at one point achieve routes for the products as well.
Henri, can I interrupt?
Hello?
Can I interrupt?
Hello.
I don't think it's our end. I think it might be at your end. We're not getting your very clear message. Could you say the second part of your question again?
Yes. It was around the refineries and products and trouble directing flows of product or do you need to reduce utilization at one point of the refineries on the East Coast? Second one.
Yeah.
Just on the buyback program. It sounds like it's really tied to shares for employees. Just wondering how that interacts with the plan for performance-linked dividend. Would you do a larger buyback rather than performance-linked dividend? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Henri. I will take the first part. You know, in, we do have a significant number of refineries on the West Coast. These were not impacted whatsoever. They provide products for local and for export markets. This is when I talk about close to 2 million barrels out of the 7 million barrels going through the East-West Pipeline that will serve these refineries. With regard to the eastern part of the Kingdom, we are sizing the capacity of each refinery based on meeting kingdom demand. We cannot export at this stage from, as you know, from the Strait of Hormuz. But these, some of these refineries, they have capacity for export.
We are a net exporter of products, so we are sizing the capacity of each of our facility refining capacity in the eastern part of the Kingdom based on meeting the Kingdom's demand. Second part, see I would take.
Yeah. Henri, your voice was cutting away, but what I make of the question is you're asking about the share buybacks, the use of it, and whether it impacts or comes at the expense of PLD. On the share buybacks, the primary reason we're doing this is to support our employee equity participation program. We have an employee share purchase program. The participation levels continue to rise. These shares we would buy, we would hold in treasury, and then we would subsequently sell back to our own employees. This does not come at the expense of PLDs. PLDs continue to be calculated according to a formula that we shared with you in the past. No change on that.
They don't—t his program doesn't come at the expense of base dividends either. It's just completely a separate program, again, mainly employee equity participation. We've actually done this a couple of times, not directly through share buybacks. The program is an old program. It's not a new program for the employee equity participation. So far, we've funded it initially with the initial IPO. We then funded it with the secondary offering, and now, we're funding it directly through share buybacks.
Thanks, Henri. Now over to Matt Lofting at JP Morgan. Matt?
Hi. Thanks for taking the questions. Congratulations on the operational resilience that the company is again showing in current circumstances. I wanted to just ask you about two topics. Firstly, from an operational perspective, the upstream oil assets are more exposed to the offshore than historically was the case, I guess, both through producing but also development assets. I just wondered if you could add any comments on implications of that and how you think about that in terms of the contingency and flexibility planning that you're undertaking. Secondly, clearly in the Kingdom you have very advantaged infrastructure and pipeline capabilities compared to the rest of the region.
Do you foresee a situation where both within the Kingdom and more broadly across the region, the current conflict results in a renewed round of investment in pipeline and infrastructure flexibility? Thank you.
Thank you, Matt. You know, with regard to the infrastructure first, the second part of your questions, we do have adequate infrastructure. You know, the East-West Pipeline, you know, we built it with this in mind for contingency. You know, before the crisis was processing somewhere in the neighborhood of about 2.8MMbpd-2.3 MMbpd. We always took a contingency to always look at what if this happen, and that's why we built the capacity a long time ago. We made sure it's available, there is the market, and it gives us another exit for our crude through the Red Sea. Similarly, everything that is associated with our infrastructure, we have strong contingency plan also supported by our iktva program.
You know, 70% of what we use in terms of equipment or our procurement comes from within the Kingdom. We reached that 70% this year. That program alone enabled the establishment of 350 new local manufacturing facilities. Our readiness in terms of equipment, subsea, aerial, everything that will be required in case something goes wrong is no match anywhere in the world in terms of readiness. We have demonstrated this through various crises. You talk about the Hajj, the plagues, Abqaiq attacks, different attacks. We have a lot of experience. We built the readiness and emergency plan and contingency plan to address all of that. Our offshore facilities also well designed with a lot of protection to ensure security and safety of the facility and the safety of these facilities.
We always ensure it is at the optimum when it comes to safety and security. So we have an excellent contingency plan to handle any type of crisis by either rerouting through other facilities or doing a quick fix if required. But if it is a major fix that will be needed, we do have the ability to reroute and the availability of a spare capacity of more than 2 billion. And fortunately, you know, for global markets, most of the spare capacity is in this region. When people talked about 5 billion and now dropped to around 2.9 million barrels of spare capacity globally, it's all available here. Most of it here in the Kingdom. It is well utilized to ensure that we will continue to meet our targets under any circumstances.
Thanks, Matt. Next question is from Abhishek Kumar at Bank of America. Abhishek?
Thank you. Thank you very much, and congratulations on a very good quarter and the resilience and the results. My question basically is on the export capabilities due to, say for example, the limitations and at ports, et cetera, if the conflict, you know, goes on for a longer period of time. What is the barrel that could actually go out from the West Coast looking at what the capacity at the port in terms of loading, unloading of vessels is? Obviously you mentioned 7 MMbpd, and some of it being used in refineries, et cetera.
Linked to that is how much of the CapEx is flexible in terms of pushing it to later years if we are in this for a slightly longer period of time? Thank you.
Thank you, Abhishek. I will answer the first part. Ziad will talk about the flexible capital. You know, the capacity of the East-West Pipeline, as I mentioned, 7 million. Up to 7 MMbpd. Almost, close to 2 million will be utilized on western region refineries that also export some of their products to the global markets. We are capitalizing on that and our in-kingdom eastern and western storage, and as well as our out-of-kingdom storage. We have storage facilities in different parts of the world that gives us a little flexibility, meet our customer demand. We have it in Asia, in Japan, in South Korea, and in Spain, and North and West Europe.
That gives us a lot of flexibility and inventory to ensure we continue supplying energy during this crisis, provided it does not persist for a long term. You mentioned the long term. As I mentioned, what goes through the Strait of Hormuz is 70 million-80 million barrels of oil and product. That is significant. Almost 20% of the global supply. This persists for a long term, which will have a ramification on the global economy. Ziad?
Abhishek, on flex CapEx, we always look at, you know, we give you a range of CapEx that already has an embedded buffer for flex CapEx. Of course, it includes a lot of other things. We do not foresee, because of our strong balance sheet, we do not foresee us having to, you know, capitalize on that or trigger that, you know, currently. Simply because we've been fiscally disciplined. All the opportunities that we're pursuing are value accretive, creating shareholder value. Therefore, we're pushing through with the capital spending. Again, if we have to, the embedded flex CapEx is within the range that we provide. I remind you that our CapEx guidance 2026 is $50 billion-$55 billion on the existing opportunities.
Thanks, Abhishek. Now Kim Fustier at HSBC. Kim?
Hi. Hello, and thank you for taking my questions. I had two, please. The first one was on upstream production curtailment. I understand that you've started to cut output at two oil fields as a result of the disruption. Could you give any granularity on which fields and asset types are being curtailed first? Offshore, onshore, lighter versus heavier crude grades? And what are the reservoir management considerations around the sequencing of those shut-ins?
My second question was on project delivery. You've highlighted delivery of Marjan, Berri, Jafurah Phase 1 as big milestones, and congratulations on those. On the projects currently in execution, such as Zuluf, Dammam Phase 2, Jafurah Phase 2, is construction activity continuing normally? And have contractors been able to maintain site access, et cetera, given the security environment? Thank you.
Thank you, Kim. I'll start with the second part of your question. Projects for our major programs continue as normal. We are working with our partners. No issues so far in meeting our obligation and delivery of these mega projects that are currently in progress. Of course, as I said, we are benefiting from our diversified supply chain and our iktva program In-Kingdom Total Value Add program, where over 70% of our supply chain is from inside the Kingdom. If needed, we have the ability to import equipment and materials through the West Coast if needed. However, hypothetically, if the situation persists, say, longer than six months, then there may be more impact to these projects. That will be evaluated if this persists for more than six months.
For the time being, we are on schedule for completion, and progress is going very well. With regard to our upstream and the shutdowns you highlighted. You know, the East-West Pipeline is mainly Arab Light and some Extra Light. It gives us additional volumes when we put lighter crudes in it through it. But mainly Arab Light and some, we mixed a little bit of Extra Light on that, and we can meet the capacity of 7 million. We don't, for obvious reasons, as I said, because of the velocity and the line. At the same time also the cost process onshore is much is lower than the process of offshore fields. Mainly what we have in offshore is Medium and Heavy. Talking about our existing fields is, in the offshore side is mainly Medium and Heavy.
For the design of the line, and this is the way we have been using it, is mainly focusing on Arab Light with a little bit of addition of Extra Light on the pipeline. There is no reservoir management implication as a result of this. You know, we are producing within the norms of these fields. Nothing additional. Of course, benefiting from our 2 million barrels per capacity. Any—w hen we go to the maximum, we are capitalizing on the existing maximum, I think, capacity of our existing grades is Arab Light and Extra Light.
Thank you, Kim. We have three more questions. The first of these remaining three is Bertrand Hodée at Kepler. Would you like to go ahead, Bertrand?
Yes. Hello, and thank you for taking my question, and congrats again for the great result. I wanted to come back on the Yanbu port. If we were to assume that you will have all tankers that you may need available, is there any bottlenecks on Yanbu port that will effectively refrain from let's say, a loading vessel capacity reaching 7 MMbpd as a mix of crude and product? Thank you.
Thank you, Bertrand. You know, as I said, the East-West is 7 million. We designed everything based on us utilizing close to 2 million in existing refineries to meet the Kingdom requirement. We don't want to be short the Kingdom of refined products. At the same time, it is important to supply the existing refineries in the Western region because they are not only meeting the Kingdom requirement, they are a net exporter of products to the global market, and that is important and critical. It is designed based on that.
Thanks, Bertrand. Now Mark Wilson at Jefferies. Mark?
Thank you. Yeah, excellent questions so far. I mean, just to follow up from Bertrand there. We can assume therefore you could export 5 million barrels onto the tankers. That would be the first question in the Red Sea. The second one, just to check, there's discussion about if we get an extended period. Can we just confirm whether there are any other export, pipeline export locations out of the Kingdom, for instance, to the north, that could be utilized should this continue? Thank you very much.
Yes. Thank you, Mark. You know, for export, we don't only. You know, if you look at 7 million and utilize 2 million, yes, that will avail 5 million for export. As I highlighted earlier, we're meeting our customer requirements, capitalizing also on our inventory, not only in the Kingdom, but also globally. We have adequate inventory that we are capitalizing on it right now to go beyond our 5 million barrels to meet our customers' requirement. Now that cannot be used, that inventory last for an extended period of time, but, you know, for the time being, we are capitalizing on it. With regard to any other means, you know, the main route that we are capitalizing on right now is the East-West Pipeline for export.
Thanks, Mark. The last question for this morning is Oliver Connor at Citi. Go ahead, Oliver.
Hi. Thank you for taking my question. If I could just switch back to gas, actually. In terms of the execution of Phase 2 of Jafurah, can you perhaps give us a little bit more color on the next steps on that project? Is this a case of drilling more wells or just expanding some of the existing infrastructure from Phase 1? Thank you.
Thank you, Oliver. As we highlighted, Jafurah Phase 1 was commissioned in December 2025. Phase 1 will progressively ramp up to 650 billion cu ft of gas. The work is on track for Phase 2, which is expected to start in 2027, and which will allow Jafurah to ramp up to reach a sustainable rate of 2 billion cu ft of gas per day by 2030. Also, more important than the gas itself, bringing 650,000 barrels per day of high-value liquid and 450 billion scfd of ethane by that time. We, of course, when we talk about the drilling, that's why it's 2027 and going up to 2030. Yes, we're drilling more and more wells every year to reach that capacity of 2 billion by 2030.
Okay, Oliver. Look, with that, I would just like to thank people for dialing in. I'd like to thank the people who are asking questions. I'd also like to thank the CEO and the CFO for dedicating this time. These are busy days. On behalf of the investors, thank you very much indeed. If there's any questions that you haven't asked, that's what investor relations are here for. Don't hesitate. Give us a call and we will follow up as speedily as we can. Thank you very much, and speak again soon.
Thank you, everyone. This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect. Have a great rest of your day.