In 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic threw global oil markets into disarray, Saudi Aramco ripped up its downstream expansion strategy which had been struggling to gain traction as key planned projects stalled. Having spent the two subsequent years laying the groundwork for a new approach, the energy giant has burst into action as 2022 has drawn to a close, announcing a series of projects aimed at quadrupling its liquids-to-chemicals capacity to 4mn b/d by 2030.