Saudi aramco

It was founded in 1933 as a result of a concession agreement between the Government of Saudi Arabia and the American oil company Standard Oil of California . Full government control over the company was achieved through the gradual repurchase of its shares in 1980. In November 1988, the company changed its name from the Arabian American Oil Company to the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (or Saudi Aramco) - the modern name.

In 2012, the company's servers were subjected to a hacker attack, as a result of which the company's servers, including Internet access for a significant part of the population of Saudi Arabia, were disconnected for a period of more than a week ^[7] .

In early 2016, the company announced plans for a possible privatization of part of the company through an IPO procedure, which, according to various estimates, would allow it to become one of the largest companies in the world in terms of capitalization, ahead of the American Apple . The estimated cost of the company, according to independent oil analyst Mohammed al-Sabban, who previously worked as a senior adviser to the Saudi Ministry of Oil, is $ 10 trillion ^[8] .

In 2018, Saudi Aramco's perpetual gas and oil production rights in Saudi Arabia were limited to 40 years ^[9] .

On August 9, 2019, The Wall Street Journal published data that the largest oil company on the planet will conduct an IPO in early 2020 ^{[10] [11]} . According to Reuters , if an IPO takes place, Saudi Aramco’s capitalization will reach $ 1.5 trillion ^{[12] [11]} . Even if the final price of the business is below this mark, Saudi Aramco will still cost more than the most expensive companies in the world - Microsoft , Apple and Amazon , which are estimated at about $ 1 trillion each ^[11] .

100% of the company is controlled by the government of Saudi Arabia.

The chairman of the board is Ali I. Al-Naimi , also the Saudi Minister of Oil. President - Khalid Abdulaziz Al-Falih ( Khalid A. Al-Falih ).

Saudi Aramco controls fields with oil reserves of approximately 260 billion barrels (99% of Saudi reserves), which is about a quarter of the world's proven oil reserves. Has a great influence in OPEC . The company controls the production of natural gas in the country, owns modern oil and gas refineries. The company has branches, joint ventures and subsidiaries in China , Japan , the Philippines , the Republic of Korea , Singapore , the United Arab Emirates , the United States and Great Britain . The company owns a fleet of modern supertankers .

Saudi Aramco has a joint venture with Lukoil, the Russian oil company, Lukoil Saudi Arabia Energy Ltd. (LUKSAR). In early 2007, this joint venture discovered commercial deposits of natural gas in Block A, located in the eastern part of the Rub al-Khali oil and gas basin (south of the world's largest Al-Gawar oil field). An agreement was signed between the Government of Saudi Arabia and LUKSAR on the development of this block for a period of up to 40 years (the total investment in the project is expected to be about $ 2 billion) ^[13] .

According to the company, in 2006 its production amounted to 8.9 million barrels of oil per day ^[14] , which corresponds to 443.1 million tons of oil per year.

The average oil recovery rate at Saudi Aramco fields, according to Amin Nasser, was about 50% in the first decade of the 21st century (with a water cut of 25-37% ^[15] ). There are plans to increase it to 66-70% over the next 20 years ^{[16] [17]} . Most of the oil was extracted using primary and secondary methods of oil production (water injection and other methods of maintaining pressure), to increase the oil recovery factor, a transition to the mass application of tertiary methods (EOR) is likely ^[18] in the coming decades ^[19] .

The number of employees is 54.8 thousand people (end of 2010 ). In connection with preparations for a probable IPO, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman estimated the company's value at $ 2 trillion. However, analysts doubt the realism of the official assessment. So, The Financial Times estimated the company from $ 880 billion to $ 1.1 trillion. In March 2016, Bloomberg believed that the IPO valuation would be closer to $ 1 trillion. Rystad Energy predicted $ 1.4 trillion, but only if prices recover to $ 75 per barrel ^[20] .

In March 2019, the company first disclosed its financial performance. According to published data, Saudi Aramco's net profit for fiscal year 2018 amounted to $ 111 billion with a total revenue of $ 355.9 billion. According to the published sales structure, in 2018 the company produced 10.3 million barrels per day and sold most of the oil in Asia - 5, 2 million barrels per day. The company supplied North America with an average of 1 million barrels per day. 860,000 barrels of oil were sent to Europe daily ^[21] .

• Company official website