Saudi Aramco is the common name of Saudi Arabian Oil Company, which is majority-owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The company traces its origins to an oil concession granted to Standard Oil of California in 1933. Oil was discovered commercially at Dammam Well No. 7 in 1938, helping transform Saudi Arabia’s economy. The company later became fully owned by the Saudi government in 1980.
Saudi Aramco operates across oil and gas exploration, production, refining, chemicals, and distribution. Its scale and profitability made it one of the world’s most valuable companies by market capitalization after its shares began trading publicly in Riyadh in 2019.
Aramco is sometimes confused with ADNOC, QatarEnergy, or Kuwait Petroleum. Those are major Gulf energy companies, but Saudi Aramco is the Saudi Arabian state-controlled company associated with the landmark Riyadh listing.