Saudi Aramco operates Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar oil field and completed the world’s largest initial public offering in 2019.
Saudi Aramco listed shares on the Saudi Exchange in December 2019. The offering raised about $25.6 billion, making it the largest IPO recorded at the time; an additional share option later increased the total to roughly $29.4 billion.
The company is formally known as Saudi Arabian Oil Company and is majority-owned by the Saudi Arabian government. Its business spans exploration, production, refining, chemicals, and energy distribution, giving it a much broader footprint than a single oil field.
Ghawar is often described as the world’s largest conventional oil field, but it is not the same thing as Saudi Aramco. Ghawar is an asset; Saudi Aramco is the company that operates it and sells energy products worldwide.