Which company operated the first oil-production concession in Saudi Arabia and later became the country’s state-owned energy giant Saudi Aramco?

The California-Arabian Standard Oil Company operated Saudi Arabia’s first oil-production concession before becoming part of the history of Saudi Aramco.

The company was established in 1933 by Standard Oil of California after Saudi Arabia granted an oil concession. Commercial quantities of oil were discovered at Dammam Well No. 7 in 1938, opening the way for a major petroleum industry in the kingdom.

The business later became the Arabian American Oil Company, commonly called Aramco. Saudi Arabia progressively acquired ownership, completing nationalization in the 1980s. The modern company is formally Saudi Arabian Oil Company, or Saudi Aramco.

This historical chain is relevant to market capitalization because Saudi Aramco’s enormous reserves and production scale helped make its 2019 public listing one of the largest in history. The original concession company and the modern listed corporation are not the same legal entity under the same name.