The story
Saudi Aramco's origins trace to the oil shortages of World War I and the exclusion of American companies from Mesopotamia by the United Kingdom and France under the San Remo Petroleum Agreement of 1920. The US administration had popular support for an "Open Door policy", which Herbert Hoover, secretary of commerce, initiated in 1921. Standard Oil of California (SoCal) was among those US companies seeking new sources of oil from abroad.
In 1932 the Bahrain Petroleum Company, a wholly owned SoCal subsidiary, discovered the first oil field in the Persian Gulf outside of Iran.
The Saudi Arabian government granted a concession to SoCal in preference to a rival bid from the Iraq Petroleum Company. The concession allowed SoCal to explore for oil in Saudi Arabia. SoCal assigned this concession to a wholly owned subsidiary, California-Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC). In 1936, with the company having had no success at locating oil, the Texas Company (Texaco) purchased a 50% stake of the concession. After four years of fruitless exploration, the first success came with the seventh drill site in Dhahran in 1938, a well referred to as Dammam No. 7. This well immediately produced over 1,500 barrels per day (240 m3/d), giving the company confidence to continue. On 31 January 1944, the company name was changed from California-Arabian Standard Oil Co. to Arabian American Oil Co. (or Aramco). On 17 March 1947, Standard Oil of New Jersey (later known as Exxon) purchased 30% and Socony Vacuum (later Mobil) purchased 10% of the company, with SoCal and Texaco retaining 30% each. The newcomers were also shareholders in the Iraq Petroleum Co. and had to get the restrictions of the Red Line Agreement lifted in order to be free to enter into this arrangement.
In 1949, Aramco had made incursions into the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, leading to a border dispute between Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia.
In 1950, King Abdulaziz threatened to nationalise his country's oil facilities, thus pressuring Aramco to agree to share profits 50/50.
A similar process had taken place with American oil companies in Venezuela a few years earlier. The American government granted US Aramco member companies a tax break known as the golden gimmick equivalent to the profits given to King Abdulaziz. In the wake of the new arrangement, the company's headquarters were moved from New York to Dhahran. In 1951, the company discovered the Safaniya Oil Field, the world's largest offshore field. In 1957, the discovery of smaller connected oil fields confirmed the Ghawar Field as the world's largest onshore field. In 1953, Saudi Arabia's first ever major industrial strike was undertaken by 13,000 local Aramco workers. The strike ended after the Saudi government intervened, threatening those who continued to strike with being forcibly returned to their home villages where only low-income employment was available.
In 1975, the Saudi Arabia second five-year economic plan included a Master Gas Plan. Natural gas would be used to generate power, rather than flaring the gas. The plan counted on using the associated gas, but by 1985, Aramco was able to include a billion standard cubic foot per day (Bscfd) of non-associated gas. This non-associated gas was produced from the Khuff Formation, which is a limestone layer 650 metres (2,130 ft) below the oil-producing Arab Zone. In 1994, Aramco discovered more non-associated gas in the deeper Jawf sandstone formation and built plants in Hawiyah and Haradh to process it. This increased the capacity of the Master Gas System to 9.4 billion scfd.
Yom Kippur War
In 1973, following US support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War, the Saudi Arabian government acquired a one-quarter "participation interest" in Aramco's assets, then increased it to sixty percent in 1974. Aramco continued to operate and manage the former Aramco assets, including its concessionary interest in certain Saudi Arab oil fields, on behalf of the Saudi Arab Government until 1988. In November 1988, a royal decree created a new Saudi Arab company, the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, to take control of the former Aramco assets (or Saudi Aramco) and took the management and operations control of Saudi Arabia's oil and gas fields from Aramco and its partners. In 1989–90, high-quality oil and gas were discovered in three areas south of Riyadh.
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Persian Gulf War
In September 1990, after the start of the Persian Gulf War, Aramco was expected to replace much of the oil production removed from the global market due to the embargo of Iraq and occupied Kuwait. This amounted to producing an extra 4.8 million barrels per day (Mbpd) to keep the global oil market stable. In addition, Aramco was expected to provide all of the coalition aviation and diesel needs. Aramco recommissioned 146 Harmaliyah, Khurais, and Ghawar oil wells with associated gas oil separation plants, and saltwater treatment pipeline, that had been mothballed during the 1980s oil price collapse. Daily production increased from 5.4 Mbpd in July to 8.5 Mbpd in December 1990 after a three-month de-mothball effort.
Starting in 1990, Aramco embarked on an expansion of crude oil sales in the Asian market. Agreements with South Korea, the Philippines, and China resulted. By 2016, about 70% of Aramco's crude oil sales were to Asia.
2000s
In May 2001, Saudi Arabia announced the Gas Initiative, which proposed forming three joint ventures with eight IOCs for gas exploration on pure upstream acreage. Core Venture 1 included south Ghawar and north Rub' Al-Khali, Core Venture 2 included the Red Sea, while Core Venture 3 involved Shaybah and Kidan. In 2003, Royal Dutch Shell and TotalEnergies formed a partnership with Saudi Aramco in Core Venture 3. In 2004, Core Venture 1 became three separate joint ventures with Saudi Aramco holding 20%, one with Lukoil, a second with Sinopec, and a third with Repsol.
By 2004, Aramco was producing 8.6 million barrels per day (mbpd) out of a potential 10 mbpd. In 2005, Aramco launched a five-year plan to spend US$50 billion to increase their daily capacity to 12.5 mbpd by increasing production and refining capacity and doubling the number of drilling rigs. In 2005, Saudi Aramco was the world's largest company with an estimated market value of US$781 billion.
In June 2008, in response to crude oil prices exceeding US$130 a barrel, Aramco announced it would increase production to 9.7 million barrels per day (mbpd). Then as prices plummeted, Aramco stated in January 2009, that it would reduce production to 7.7 mbpd. In 2011, Saudi Aramco started production from the Karan Gas Field, with an output of more than 400 million scf per day. In January 2016, the Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, announced he was considering listing shares of the state-owned company, and selling around 5% of them in order to build a large sovereign wealth fund.
On 26 April 2017, Saudi security forces thwarted an attempted attack on an Aramco oil distribution centre involving an unmanned boat from Yemen. The Wall Street Journal reported in September 2018, Aramco was considering a US$1 billion venture-capital fund to invest in international technology firms.
In June 2019, a report by Financial Times claimed that Aramco had been bearing the ministry-related expenses; boosting the finance ministry budget allocation. It also included Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih’s company-related and diplomatic trips, as well as his stays in luxurious hotels. However, an ally mentioned that Falih’s policies have delivered additional oil revenues that far exceeded his expenses. In September 2019, Saudi Arabia appointed Yasir Al-Rumayyan as the Chairman of Aramco. Al-Rumayyan became head of the country’s sovereign wealth fund by replacing Khalid Al-Falih, who was holding the position since 2015.
2012 cyber attack
Aramco computers were attacked by a virus on 15 August 2012. The following day Aramco announced that none of the infected computers were part of the network directly tied to oil production and that the company would soon resume full operations. Hackers claimed responsibility for the spread of the computer virus. The virus hit companies within the oil and energy sectors. A group named "Cutting Sword of Justice" claimed responsibility for an attack on 30,000 Saudi Aramco workstations, causing the company to spend months restoring their services. The group later indicated that the Shamoon virus had been used in the attack. Due to this attack, the main site of Aramco went down and a message came to the home page apologising to customers. Computer security specialists said that "The attack, known as Shamoon, is said to have hit at least one organisation in the sector. Shamoon is capable of wiping files and rendering several computers on a network unusable." Richard Clarke suggests the attack was part of Iran's retaliation for the US involvement in Stuxnet. Security researcher Chris Kubecka, who helped the company establish security after the attack, detailed the level of sophistication in her Black Hat USA 2015 presentation and episode 30 of Darknet Diaries.
2019 drone attack
On 14 September 2019, there was a drone attack on two Saudi Aramco plants: the Abqaiq oil processing facility and Khurais oil field. Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack cut 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of Saudi crude output, over 5% of the world's supply. There were discussions by Saudi Arabian officials on postponing Aramco's IPO, because the attacks "sidelined more than half of the kingdom's output" of oil.
2019 initial public offering (IPO)
Since around 2018, Saudi Arabia had been considering to put a portion of Saudi Aramco's ownership, up to 5%, onto public trading via a staged initial public offering (IPO), as to reduce the cost to the government of running the company. While the IPO had been vetted by major banks, the IPO was delayed over concerns of Aramco's corporate structure through 2018 into 2019. The September 2019 drone attacks on Aramco's facilities also delayed the onset of the IPO.
On 9 April 2019, Aramco issued bonds collectively valued at US$12 billion. Its first international bond issue received more than US$100 billion in orders from foreign investors, which breaks all records for a bond issue by an emerging market entity. Aramco announced on Sunday 3 November 2019 its plan to list 1.5% of its value as an IPO on the Tadawul stock exchange. On 9 November 2019, Saudi Aramco released a 600-page prospectus giving details of the IPO. According to the specifications provided, up to 0.5% of the shares were locked for individual retail investors.
On 4 December 2019, Saudi Aramco priced its offering at 32 Saudi riyals (approximately US$8.53 at the time) per share. The company generated subscriptions of total amount equals US$119 billion representing 456% of total offer shares. It raised US$25.6 billion in its IPO, making it the world's largest IPO, succeeding that of the Alibaba Group in 2014. The company commenced trading on Tadawul on 11 December 2019, with shares rising 10% to 35.2 riyals, giving the company a market capitalisation of about US$1.88 trillion, and making Saudi Aramco the world's largest listed company. The entire Tadawul has a market capitalisation of US$2.22 trillion.
Global Medium Term Note Programme
According to a bourse filing made by Aramco, the likes of Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and NCB Capital were hired by the company for organising investor calls prior to the planned transaction. The document published by one of the other banks said to be involved in the deal showed that the deal included BNP Paribas, MUFG, BofA Securities, SMBC Nikko, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Societe Generale, and BOC International. The company has reported a fall in the net profit of its third-quarter for November 2020, due to increased crude prices and a drop in its demand following the COVID-19 pandemic.
2020s
On 10 March 2020 Saudi Aramco announced a global partnership with Formula One landing a multi-year deal. On 17 June 2020, Saudi Aramco acquired a 70% share in SABIC, a chemicals manufacturing company. In June 2020, Saudi Aramco laid off nearly 500 of its more than 70,000 employees, as global energy firms reduced their workforce due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the workers who lost their job at Aramco were foreigners. On 31 July 2020, Saudi Aramco lost its title as the world's largest listed company by market capitalisation to Apple. On 9 August 2020, Saudi Aramco reported a 50% fall in net income for the first half of its financial year, as demand for oil and prices continued to fall due to the coronavirus crisis. On 3 November 2020, Saudi Aramco reported a 44.6% drop in third-quarter net profit amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 14 December 2020, Saudi state TV announced that an oil tanker carrying over 60,000 metric tons of unleaded gasoline from an Aramco refinery at Yanbu, had been attacked by a smaller boat rigged with explosives.
In March 2021, Saudi Aramco announced that earnings in 2020 fell by nearly 45% compared with 2019, as lockdowns around the world following the COVID-19 pandemic curbed demand for oil. On 19 March 2021, an Aramco refinery was attacked by six bomb-laden drones. The attack, which was claimed by Houthi rebels, started a fire but caused no injuries or damage, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. On 21 March 2021, Saudi Aramco signed an agreement to secure China's energy supplies for the next 50 years, and also to develop new technologies to combat climate change. More recently, they signed a deal with a consortium led by EIG. In July 2021, Saudi Aramco appointed former HSBC Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver to the company's board of directors.
In October 2021, Saudi Aramco announced plans to achieve net-zero carbon emissions from its wholly owned operations by 2060. On 20 November 2021, Houthi fighters took credit for launching 14 drones at military targets in Riyadh, Abha, Jizan, Najran, and Jeddah, and Aramco's refineries in Jeddah. In 2021, The Guardian reported that Aramco was not trying to diversify at the same rate as other oil companies, such as Shell and BP. Rather, Aramco announced in 2021 that the company intended to increase crude capacity from 12m barrels a day to 13m barrels by 2027.
Saudi Aramco partnered with F1 constructor Aston Martin on a deal including sponsorship and naming rights, for which Aston Martin is officially called Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team in early 2022; it would be renamed Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team from 2024 on. In February 2022, following crude's ascent to nearly $95 per barrel, Saudi Arabia's Aramco boosted oil prices for clients in Asia, the United States, and Europe. In March 2022, Houthi fighters attacked an Aramco storage site in Jeddah causing a fire in two storage tanks. The incident occurred during the closing part of the first practice session for the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, with first reports coming just after 17:40 local time. After closed-door discussions between Formula One officials, all ten teams, and local officials, the remaining sessions went ahead as planned. On 11 May 2022, Saudi Aramco became the largest (most valuable) company in the world by market cap, surpassing Apple Inc. In August 2022, Saudi Aramco announced that it would acquire Valvoline's petroleum unit for $2.65 billion.
In March 2023, Saudi Aramco announced that they had seen record profits of $161 billion as prices of petrol soared following the COVID-19 pandemic. The figures eclipsed the numbers posted by ExxonMobil and Shell, who reported $55.7 and $39.9 billion in profit respectively. In March 2023, Saudi Aramco announced it was going to acquire a 10% stake in China's Rongsheng Petrochemical Co. Ltd, with an estimated purchase price of $3.6 billion, and plans to build a new refining and petrochemical complex in northeast China through a joint venture.
In September 2023, it was announced that Saudi Aramco had reached an agreement with the Latin American private equity fund, Southern Cross Group to acquire the Santiago-headquartered fuel retailer, Esmax Distribución SPA, operator of Petrobras-branded service stations in Chile. The acquisition marks Saudi Aramco's entry into the South American fuel retailing market, and beginning in May 2024, the 300 Petrobras service stations in Chile will be gradually converted to Aramco service stations. In September 2023, Indian engineering and construction giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T) signed a contract with Saudi Aramco. The Jafoor unconventional gas development expansion project in Saudi Arabia where L&T will build a gas processing plant and major processing facilities is worth $2.9 billion. In December 2023, Saudi Aramco acquired 40% shares in Gas & Oil Pakistan for an undisclosed amount. In January 2024, the Saudi government told Aramco to abandon its planned expansion to 13 million barrels a day by 2027 and to maintain maximum capacity at 12 million barrels per day. On 25 April 2024, Saudi Aramco announced that they had become FIFA's Major Worldwide Partner on three-year deal with sponsorship rights on the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup.
In August 2025, Saudi Aramco sold a 49% stake in its Jafurah gas processing facilities to a BlackRock-led consortium for $11 billion. The lease and leaseback agreement allowed Aramco to raise capital while retaining a majority stake in the infrastructure subsidiary. Production at Jufurah and the Tanajib Gas Plant began in December 2025. Tanajib is intended to reach a raw-gas processing capacity of 2.6 billion standard cubic feet per day by 2026. In February 2026, Saudi Aramco began selling Jafurah condensate cargoes to U.S. energy companies Chevron and ExxonMobil. The sales marked the beginning of exports from the Jafurah gas project.
Saudi Aramco was ranked first on Forbes Middle East's Top 100 Listed Companies 2025 list. In early 2026, Saudi Aramco signed a 20-year deal to receive one million tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year from USA.
In March 2026, Aramco announced its first share-buyback program, which authorized repurchases of up to $3 billion over an 18-month period. On 19 March 2026, the SAMREF refinery located in Yanbu was targeted by an aerial attack causing minimal damages.
On 25 July 2026, Yemen's Houthi movement claimed that it had carried out operations targeting Saudi Aramco facilities in Jizan and Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the operations involved ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones. Saudi authorities and Aramco did not immediately confirm the claims. Footage shared on social media showed smoke rising near the Aramco refinery in Jizan, while reports cited data from NASA's FIRMS satellite monitoring system indicating fire activity at the site.
Along with other Middle East countries where oil reserves are easy to extract, Saudi Arabia has relatively low production costs around $10 per barrel, making most oil sales prices profitable. By comparison, Canada and United States have production costs around $40 to $60 per barrel.
On 5 October 2026, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser addressed the Energy Intelligence Forum in London, warning that pressure on both crude oil and refined fuels would likely intensify. Until the Strait of Hormuz fully reopens and confidence returns, he said, "pressure at both ends of the barrel will intensify," adding that replenishing global inventories could take up to two years. Nasser further noted that Saudi Arabia's maximum sustainable production capacity of 12 million barrels per day could be made available within days, and that Aramco was studying additional export routes beyond the existing East-West pipeline.
From Wikipedia’s article on Saudi Aramco, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5