Saudi Aramco’s headquarters are in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, where the state-controlled energy company has its principal corporate base.
Dhahran is in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, close to the major oil-producing areas and the cities of Dammam and Al Khobar. The region became central to the country’s petroleum industry after oil was discovered commercially in the 1930s.
Saudi Aramco began as the California-Arabian Standard Oil Company in 1933. Its name changed as ownership shifted, and the Saudi government completed the company’s nationalization in the 1980s. The modern company is formally Saudi Arabian Oil Company, commonly shortened to Saudi Aramco.
Dhahran is sometimes confused with Riyadh because Riyadh is Saudi Arabia’s national capital and the seat of central government. Saudi Aramco’s corporate headquarters, however, are in Dhahran. The company’s 2019 stock-market listing made it one of the world’s most valuable publicly traded businesses.