Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) has announced the signing of 28 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) worth more than $1 billion, focused on research and development collaborations in advanced materials and emerging technologies.
According to a company press release, the agreements were unveiled during the 19th Middle East Corrosion Conference & Exhibition (MECC) in Dhahran. The MoUs aim to promote local manufacturing capabilities in Saudi Arabia and establish new partnerships in workforce training and development.
Senior Aramco executives spoke at the event about the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in tackling long-standing industrial challenges such as corrosion, as well as its wider applications in developing new materials on an industrial scale.
Among the company’s top representatives was Ahmad O. Al Khowaiter, Aramco’s Executive Vice President of Technology and Innovation. He said: “Worldwide, across all industries, it is projected that corrosion costs roughly $3 trillion per year, representing about 3% of global GDP.”
Al Khowaiter added: “Studies indicate that close to $1 trillion per year in savings can be realized by applying AI and other corrosion control technologies. Behind every dollar lost to corrosion is increased risk. Risk to the safety of our colleagues, risk to the integrity of our environment and risk to the reliability of energy supply which billions of people depend on.”
He continued: “AI gives us the power to predict failures before they occur, optimize maintenance schedules and extend the productive life of critical assets… We believe that with the right technology, the right talent and the right partnerships, we can transform our industry and set new global standards for this new AI age.”
The conference also featured remarks from Wail A. Al Jaafari, Aramco’s Executive Vice President of Technical Services, who opened the event and discussed the company’s continued investment in corrosion management. “In the past three years alone, Aramco has invested more than $70 million in corrosion management technologies, achieving over $770 million in cost savings and avoidance,” he said.
Al Jaafari highlighted the increasing role of AI in preventive maintenance: “AI-powered solutions are now anticipating corrosion before it happens, leveraging a vast network of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) sensors across our facilities and pipelines. These sensors provide more than 10 million corrosion-monitoring readings annually across over 40 facilities.”
He concluded: “Our ambition does not stop at Aramco’s facilities. We are combining our domain expertise and intellectual property with AI to develop advanced solutions that can benefit the entire energy and industrial community.”
The Saudi oil giant has also reported strong financial results for the first nine months of 2025.
