Saudi Aramco

Saudi Aramco, Oil company founded by the Standard Oil Co. of California (Chevron) in 1933, when the government of Saudi Arabia granted it a concession. Other U.S. companies joined after oil was found near Dhahran in 1938. In 1950 Aramco opened a pipeline from Saudi Arabia to the Mediterranean Sea port of Sidon, Lebanon. It was closed in 1983 except to supply a refinery in Jordan. A more successful pipeline, with a destination on the Persian Gulf, was finished in 1981. In 1951 Aramco found the first offshore oil field in the Middle East. In the 1970s and ’80s, control gradually passed to the Saudi Arabian government, which eventually took over Aramco and renamed it Saudi Aramco in 1988.

As part of plans to attract foreign investment in Saudi industries, spearheaded by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Aramco was slated to open up an initial public offering (IPO) as early as 2017. The move suffered setbacks, however, and was repeatedly delayed. In September 2019 two of Saudi Aramco’s oil-processing facilities were attacked, including its largest, in Abqaiq, causing significant damage and temporarily disrupting its production capacity. Within weeks the company’s output was fully restored, and in November it announced its intention to move forward with the IPO. Though the IPO fell short of Saudi Arabia’s initial goals, Saudi Aramco opened with the largest IPO to date.