DAMMAM/JEDDAH, 13 December — In the face of complaints by road contractors about acute shortages in the supply of asphalt by Saudi Aramco, the company has decided to suspend all exports to foreign markets.
A company source claimed that Saudi Aramco had been exporting asphalt because of a surplus after local consumption.
However, Ibrahim Al-Misad, a leading contractor, accused that Aramco officials were trying to justify their failure to supply enough quantities to the local market by giving flimsy excuses. He said the company had been exporting the entire output from the Yanbu refinery for the past five years.
Misad pointed out that the company refused to accept this fact at a meeting last week between representatives of the company and road contractors. Instead, the company officials accused the contractors of smuggling the material out of the country, he added.
A contractors’ group has decided to sue Saudi Aramco for damages as the company failed to supply enough quantities of asphalt in time to complete their contractual commitments. This, contractors say, has incurred huge losses to them.
He said Aramco officials have failed to understand the hardships faced by the local contracting firms over the past 20 years.
Khaled Al-Ajmi, another leading contractor, said it was ironic that Aramco was exporting asphalt when it was incapable of meeting the growing demand in the domestic market.
Al-Ajmi said Aramco must compensate the road contractors who had to suspend work because of the shortfall in the supply of asphalt.
Dismissing the charges that the company failed to meet needs in the local market as baseless rumors, an Aramco official said, “Saudi Aramco is prepared to fulfill contractual obligations of its units to supply the product to the ministries of communications and the municipal and rural affairs. It can also meet the requirements of the private sector.”
The company has been producing the material at quantities sufficient to meet the increasing demand, the official said.
Muhammad Tahlawi, public relations director at the Saudi Aramco told Arab News, that the company spares no effort to meet the requirements of the domestic market.
