据彭博社2月27日消息称，沙特阿美公司的目标是成为全球最大的天然气生产商之一，该公司正着眼于俄罗斯、澳大利亚、美国和非洲的一些项目，以启动液化天然气的全球业务。

沙特国有石油公司首席执行官阿明纳赛尔在伦敦接受采访时表示：“天然气是一个主要市场，我们希望成为最大的参与者之一。人们有兴趣投资天然气和液化天然气。”

当被问及这家正式名称为沙特阿拉伯石油公司的公司一年后是否会在海外大举投资天然气时，纳赛尔回答说:“我希望如此。”

天然气通过将其冷却至零下162摄氏度（零下260华氏度）而变成液体。在此之后，液化天然气被装载到大型船只上，然后运往世界各地。液化技术是在上世纪60年代和70年代商业化开发的，它使天然气进入了全球市场，使其能够进入从日本到西班牙的各个国家。

全球最大的几家石油公司在天然气和液化天然气领域进行了大量投资，荷兰皇家壳牌公司和埃克森美孚公司运营着从卡塔尔到澳大利亚的多个大型项目。在许多方面，西方石油公司也将天然气视为其能源转型战略的一部分：它的污染远低于原油，释放的二氧化碳也更少，而这正是导致气候变化的原因。

曹海斌 摘译自 彭博社

原文如下：

Saudi Aramco Eyes LNG Deals in Next Year in New Gas Strategy

Saudi Aramco aims to become one of the world’s largest players in natural gas and the company is eyeing projects in Russia, Australia, America and Africa to kick-start a global business in the liquefied form of the fuel.

“Gas is a major market and we want to be one of the largest players,” Amin Nasser, the chief executive of Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil company, said in an interview in London. “There’s appetite to invest in natural gas and LNG.”

Asked whether the company, formally known as Saudi Arabian Oil Co., will have made a major overseas investment in gas in a year’s time, Nasser responded: “I hope so.”

Natural gas is turned into a liquid by super cooling it to minus 162 degrees Celsius (minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit). After that, the liquefied natural gas, known as LNG, gets loaded onto massive ships and transported around the world. The liquefaction technology, which was developed commercially in the 1960s and 1970s, gave natural gas access to global markets, allowing it to reach countries from Japan to Spain.

The world’s biggest oil companies have invested heavily in natural gas and LNG, with Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. operating large projects from Qatar to Australia. In many ways, Western oil companies also see natural gas as part of their energy transition strategy: it’s far less polluting than crude oil, releasing less carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change.