Saudi Aramco, listed on Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul exchange in 2019, is the world’s largest oil company by revenue and market value in commonly cited company rankings.
The company’s initial public offering took place in December 2019. The listing made Saudi Aramco one of the world’s largest publicly traded companies immediately, although the Saudi government retained majority ownership.
Saudi Aramco’s history reaches back to the concession granted to Standard Oil of California in 1933. Oil was discovered commercially at Dammam Well No. 7 in 1938. The company was nationalized in stages, and Saudi Arabia completed its acquisition of the business in the 1980s.
Saudi Aramco is headquartered in Dhahran and operates across oil exploration, production, refining, chemicals, and distribution. It is often confused with Saudi Arabia’s government itself: Aramco is a company, while the government is its controlling shareholder. Market-cap rankings can change with oil prices and share prices.