Saudi Aramco

ARAMCO is a Saudi Arabian Oil Company, with its roots in 1933. It is also known as Saudi Aramco or the Saudi Arabian Oil Group. It is mainly state-owned, and its base is in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. At present, Aramco is considered the largest oil producer company and has a strong presence in the energy markets of Asia, Europe, and North America.

Saudi ARAMCO

Founded	May 5, 1933 (1933-29-05)
Headquarters	Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Key people	Amin H. Nasser (President, CEO)
Website	aramco.com

History

In 1933, Saudi Arabia signed an agreement with the Standard Oil Company of California (SOCAL), that resulted in the creation of the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC). This was a concession agreement. The company started its drilling works two years later. In 1938, their efforts started paying off in finding oil, and other US companies joined in. By the late 1940s, the company was hitting milestones and establishing its name in the field and had expanded across Saudi Arabia quickly. By 1950, Aramco was owned by four companies and had its base in New York, United States. In 1952, the headquarters moved to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

In 1950 Aramco opened a pipeline from Saudi Arabia to Lebanon, which was closed in 1983. Two years prior to that, Aramco opened another pipeline to the Arabian-Persian Gulf. Aramco has built the longest pipeline in the world, named “the Trans-Arabian Pipeline.”

In 1944 he company was renamed from California Arabian Standard Oil Company to Arabian-American Oil Company, hence the acronym ARAMCO. Under the rule of King Faisal, and in the 1970s, Saudi Arabia bought up to 60% of the American, at the time, oil company. In 1980s, Saudi Arabia bought the remaining 40% of the company and changed its name to Saudi Aramco. In 1989, the company changed its identity to a petroleum business. From the 1990s and after, Aramco created a global network of allies and partners, while it kept growing in production and profits. The company has also invested in research and development, in an attempt to expand its production capabilities.

In 2019 and a couple of months before the launch of the company's IPO, Aramco’s largest facility, in Abqaiq, was under attack, damaging its production. However, the company was rather quick to recover, as within weeks it fully restored its production capacity.

As a state-owned company, Saudi Aramco pays a tax rate of 50% to the government of Saudi Arabia. This tax rate was higher, up to 85%, but was changed in 2017.

Saudi Aramco's IPO

In 2017, Aramco decided to open an Initial Public Offering, IPO, which had many delays and was set into motion two years later. The company's IPO raised $25.6 billion, selling three billion shares. The amount raised by the IPO was only the 1.5% of the value of Saudi Aramco. Aramco’s IPO was not as successful as the company would have hoped, but it is the largest IPO to be launched.

The future

Looking into the future, Aramco wants to change the resources it has. This will add new flows of value for the company and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco's goal is to remain a worldwide supplier, whom people trust.