Saudi Aramco became the world's most valuable publicly listed oil company after its 2019 initial public offering.
Saudi Aramco began trading on the Saudi Exchange in December 2019. Its IPO valued the company at about $1.7 trillion, making it the largest initial public offering by proceeds at that time. The offering sold a small percentage of the company while the Saudi government retained the vast majority of ownership.
The company is formally known as Saudi Arabian Oil Company and is headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It operates across oil exploration, production, refining, chemicals, and distribution. Its enormous reserves and production capacity are major reasons investors associate it with the global energy market.
Saudi Aramco is sometimes confused with national oil companies that are not publicly traded. Market-capitalization comparisons apply to listed shares, so an IPO can make a company's public valuation measurable even when most ownership remains with a government.