Innovation is a thread that runs through every aspect of our business. All our scientists, researchers and engineers live the dream of developing new technologies for upstream and downstream operations, and adapting established tools to meet our specific needs. We were granted our 100th patent back in 2010 and we even have our own Idea Management System (IMS) to capture and register our inventions.

Technological improvements and innovative solutions are making significant contributions to Saudi Aramco. New technologies are helping us increase our ability to find and recover precious oil, and turn it into clean fuel to meet energy demand. New innovations are helping us expand into new markets for chemicals and renewable energy. These developments are also helping us with our approach to carbon management and contributing to the effective mitigation of the challenges posed by climate change, as well as strengthening the Kingdom’s economy.

We are establishing international research centers at some of our subsidiaries in strategic locations around the world, as well as broadening and deepening our relationships with world-class universities.

The international research center at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands concentrates on geophysics research in near-surface characterization and data-driven seismic processing.

A second research group, at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), undertakes projects related to biocapture, robotics, fuel technology, chemicals, membranes and advanced materials.

In addition, five standalone research centers are underway in Aberdeen (Scotland), Houston, Cambridge (Massachusetts), Beijing and southeast Michigan. In addition, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures (SAEV), our corporate venture subsidiary, invests globally in startup and high-growth companies with technologies of strategic importance to Saudi Aramco, and aims to accelerate the development and deployment of these technologies Kingdom-wide. Investments range from $1 million to $30 million per company.

We can point to a string of industry-leading and award-winning breakthrough products including:

GigaPOWERS – innovative reservoir simulation technology that enables engineers to improve hydrocarbon recovery.
Resbots – nano-agents 1/1,000th the size of a human hair; designed to measure properties like reservoir pressure, temperature and fluid type.
Pioneering work to use solar power for power generation and water desalination.
DesertRayTM– which allows us to identify oil contamination by analyzing oil samples and checking for any changes to the oil’s unique “fingerprint.”