Aramco, TotalEnergies and SIRC to explore sustainable aviation fuel plant in Saudi Arabia

Pact was announced during the French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to the kingdom

An Airbus A350-900, the first Air France jet long-haul aircraft to use sustainable aviation fuel produced by France's Total. AFP

Saudi Arabia's Aramco, French petroleum company TotalEnergies and Saudi Investment Recycling Company have signed an agreement to explore the development of a sustainable aviation fuel plant in Saudi Arabia's eastern province.

The entities announced the signing of a joint development and cost-sharing agreement during French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to the kingdom. The partnership aims to leverage the latest engineering and recycling technologies to process local waste materials like used cooking oil and animal fats into synthetic alternatives to fossil fuels.

Aramco is pursuing various potential solutions to contribute to global emissions reduction efforts, said the company’s president and chief executive Amin Nasser.

“We already have a well-established partnership with TotalEnergies and this new collaboration demonstrates our intent to explore ways to leverage our combined strengths, in this case with a view to establishing a SAF plant in the kingdom with SIRC,” Mr Nasser said.

“As Saudi Arabia’s tourism and aviation sectors expand, this could potentially benefit both domestic and international airlines.”

The latest collaboration aligns with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 and the Saudi Green Initiative, emphasising the kingdom’s growing focus on sustainability in its expanding aviation and tourism sectors. If realised, the project could benefit the aviation industry, addressing the increasing need for low-carbon aviation solutions.

“SAF is at the heart of our company's transition strategy, as we strive to meet the aviation industry's demand to reduce its carbon footprint,” said Patrick Pouyanne, chairman and chief executive of TotalEnergies.

“By leveraging our expertise, we can take a further step towards the decarbonisation of air transport together.”

SAF is expected to contribute to about 65 per cent of the reduction in emissions needed by the aviation industry by 2050, according to the International Air Transport Association.

It accounts for just 0.53 per cent of the aviation industry’s fuel needs for this year, the global airlines lobby group said in June. While SAF production this year is on track to triple to 1.5 million tonnes, “exponential increases” in supply are needed, it said at the time.

The aviation sector is responsible for about 2 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions.

SAF can reduce carbon emissions over the fuel’s life cycle by up to 85 per cent in comparison with petroleum jet fuel, according to the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

“We have a keen focus on increasing waste conversion rates into renewable resources. The new partnership … to assess the feasibility of a renewable aviation fuels plant signifies a major leap forward in our mission,” said Ziad Al-Sheha, chief executive of SIRC which collects and turns organic materials into sustainable products in Saudi Arabia.

In August, Abu Dhabi’s clean energy company Masdar also signed an agreement with TotalEnergies to explore a SAF project using methanol produced from green hydrogen.

The agreement came after a successful test flight conducted by the two companies during the Cop28 climate conference in December, which demonstrated the potential for converting methanol to SAF.