Dhahran is the headquarters city of Saudi Aramco, one of the world’s largest companies by market capitalization.
Saudi Aramco’s headquarters are in Dhahran, in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, a region closely associated with the country’s oil industry. The company developed from the California-Arabian Standard Oil Company, established in 1933, and became fully owned by the Saudi government in 1980.
Saudi Aramco operates across exploration, production, refining, chemicals, and distribution. Its scale comes from Saudi Arabia’s large hydrocarbon reserves and its role in producing and exporting crude oil. The company’s shares began trading on the Saudi Exchange in December 2019 after an initial public offering.
Dhahran is sometimes confused with Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s national capital, or nearby Dammam, a major Eastern Province city. The company’s headquarters location and the location of its stock exchange listing are separate facts: Aramco is headquartered in Dhahran, while its shares trade in Riyadh.