Saudi Aramco has now taken full control of the Port Arthur refinery in Texas, which it up to now has operated as a 50:50 joint venture, Motiva Enterprises, with the Shell group. Plans for the transaction were announced last year. Port Arthur is the US market’s largest oil refinery.

Along with the refinery, Aramco is also acquiring from Shell full ownership of 24 distribution terminals, giving it the exclusive right to sell Shell-branded gasoline and diesel in seven Southern US states.

Global petrochemical markets are now seeing a string of new overseas investment by Saudi players as part of the Vision 2030 drive launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2016 to diversify the Kingdom’s sources of income away from crude oil.