Saudi Aramco is the Saudi company formally known as Saudi Arabian Oil Company and commonly abbreviated as Aramco.
The company traces its origins to a 1933 concession granted by Saudi Arabia to Standard Oil of California. Oil was discovered commercially at Dammam No. 7 in 1938, and the enterprise later developed into the Kingdom’s state-controlled energy champion.
Saudi Aramco became publicly traded in December 2019, when the Saudi government sold shares on the Tadawul stock exchange. Its enormous reserves, production capacity, and refining and chemicals operations have made it one of the world’s most valuable listed companies.
Aramco is not the same as Saudi Arabia’s government itself. The state remains its controlling shareholder, while the company operates as a separate corporate entity with publicly traded stock.