Saudi Aramco became the world’s largest publicly traded oil company after its 2019 initial public offering. The company listed shares on the Saudi Exchange in December 2019, making a portion of the state-owned oil giant available to public investors.
Saudi Aramco is formally the Saudi Arabian Oil Company and is headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It operates some of the world’s largest oil fields and has major businesses spanning exploration, production, refining, chemicals, and distribution. Its enormous hydrocarbon reserves and production capacity give it an exceptional scale among energy companies.
The 2019 listing was notable not only for the company’s size but also because only a minority stake was offered publicly. The Saudi government retained control. Market capitalization therefore represented the value investors placed on the listed shares and the implied value of the wider company, while ownership and strategic control remained primarily with the Saudi state.