Saudi Aramco – Company Overview, History, Products

Saudi Aramco is the world’s largest public petroleum and natural gas production and manufacturing company. It employs more than 66,000 employees and is headquartered in Dhahran. Saudi Aramco has always been one of the largest companies in the world in terms of revenue. It has the world’s second-largest crude oil reserves with more than 270 billion barrels. Saudi Aramco has been one of the largest valuable companies in the world in terms of market capital by surpassing Apple Inc in May 2022. 

It is also one of the largest contributors to all the carbon emissions that are happening around the world due to the large oil supply it performs to most of the countries in the world. Saudi Aramco is not a private company instead, it is a state-owned enterprise under the Government of Saudi Arabia with more than 98% ownership. In 2021, Saudi Aramco generated revenue of more than 360 billion dollars, according to standard sources.

Saudi Aramco is the world's largest hydrocarbon chain network called the master gas system. Saudi Aramco crossed the record crude oil production of around 3.4 billion barrels in 2013, including 290 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The largest oil fields for Saudi Aramco include the Safaniya field and the Ghawar field.

On 11 December 2019, Saudi Aramco listed itself on the Tadawul stock exchange market of Saudi Arabia. The shares immediately rose to 36 Saudi riyals giving it a market cap of more than 1.88 trillion dollars on its very first day and then on the second day Saudi Aramco crossed the 2 trillion dollar mark.

Saudi Aramco – Overview and History 

Saudi Aramco was initially started during World War I in 1933 due to the oil shortage in various parts of the world. In 1951, Saudi Aramco discovered the Safaniya oil field which is the world’s largest offshore oil field for oil production and manufacturing. Then in 1957 it also discovered the Ghawar field which is the largest on-shore field for oil.

In 1975, the Saudi Government announced a second 5-year plan called the master gas plan to enhance the natural gas reserves and crude oil to generate power and export it to other countries. 

By 2005, Saudi Aramco was the world’s largest company with a market capitalization of more than 781 billion dollars. The Saudi Arabia government slowly gained control over Saudi Aramco and made it a public state enterprise. 

Then in 2008 when there was a financial economic crisis all over the world the crude oil prices were priced to 130 dollars per barrel, and Saudi Aramco rapidly increased its production to increase it further to 12 million barrels per day.

Then in January 2016, the Deputy crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud officially declared that he is listing his shares of Saudi Aramco and selling 5 percent of his stake. Then in 2019, Saudi Aramco filed for its IPO by raising 25 billion dollars making it the world’s largest IPO. The company crossed the two trillion dollar mark on just the second day of trading.

But then in 2020 due to the coronavirus, there was very less demand for crude oil all over the world due to which the revenue of Saudi Aramco nearly fell by 50 percent as compared to the previous year.

Saudi Aramco – Products

The various products of Saudi Aramco are as follows: 

• Gasoline
• Diesel
• Crude oil
• Propane
• Sulfur
• LPG
• Paving Asphalt
• Sales Gas
• Natural Gasoline
• Butane
• Jet A1
• JP 8
• Kerosene
• Fuel Oil
• Ethane

Along with the manufacturing of crude oil products, Saudi Aramco also focuses on manufacturing hydrocarbon products and chemicals and also its specialization in engineering and technical services on ports for easy transportation of crude oil all over the world.

Wrapping Up:

Hence Saudi Aramco is one of the world’s largest petroleum and natural gas companies. It is currently the second largest company in the world in terms of market capitalization after Apple. Most of the countries in the world are dependent on Saudi Aramco for crude oil and natural gas.