Fortune Global Ranking 2022:
According to the Fortune Global 500 2022 rankings, the firms on this list are the biggest in the world by combined revenue. Since 2014, Saudi Aramco has ranked third in the world in terms of revenue.
Saudi Aramco:
Saudi Aramco, also known as Saudi Arabian Oil Business and previously known as Arabian American Oil Company, is an oil company that was established by the Standard Oil Co. of California (Chevron) in 1933 after receiving a concession from the Saudi Arabian government. Following the 1938 discovery of oil close to Dhahran, other American businesses entered. Aramco inaugurated a pipeline in 1950 connecting Saudi Arabia with the port of Sidon, Lebanon, on the Mediterranean Sea. Except for supplying a refinery in Jordan, it was shut down in 1983. In 1981, a more effective pipeline that ended up in the Persian Gulf was completed. The first offshore oil field in the Middle East was discovered by Aramco in 1951. Control of Aramco steadily shifted to the Saudi Arabian government in the 1970s and 1980s, and in 1988 it was taken over and renamed Saudi Aramco.
Saudi Aramco was planned to have an initial public offering (IPO) as early as 2017 as part of plans by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to entice global investment in Saudi sectors. But there were problems, and the relocation was continually postponed. Two of Saudi Aramco's oil-processing facilities, including its biggest at Abqaiq, were targeted in September 2019, resulting in considerable damage and temporarily interrupting its production capacity. The company's productivity had entirely recovered within a few weeks, and in November it declared its decision to proceed with the IPO. Even if Saudi Arabia's early expectations were not met, Saudi Aramco launched with the biggest IPO to date.
Saudi Aramco, also known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Company or simply Aramco, is a publicly traded Saudi Arabian oil and gas company with its headquarters in Dhahran. Its Arabic name is Saudi Aramco (Armk as-Sudiyyah). It will rank among the top firms in the world in terms of revenue by 2020. With more than 270 billion barrels (43 billion cubic meters) of proven crude oil reserves, Saudi Aramco has the second-largest oil production per day among all oil-producing companies. Since 1965, no other company has contributed more to the world's carbon emissions than it has. Saudi Aramco surpassed Apple Inc. to become the biggest (and most valuable) corporation in the world by market cap on May 11, 2022.
The Master Gas System, the largest hydrocarbon network in the world, is run by Saudi Aramco. It manages more than 100 oil and gas fields in Saudi Arabia, including 288.4 trillion standard cubic feet (SCF) of natural gas reserves. In 2013, the total amount of crude oil produced was 3.4 billion barrels (540 million cubic meters). The Ghawar Field, the largest onshore oil field in the world, and the Safaniya Field, the largest offshore oil field in the world, are both operated by Saudi Aramco.
The company's shares started trading on the Tadawul stock exchange on December 11, 2019. The market capitalization of the shares increased to 35.2 Saudi riyals, or approximately $1.88 trillion, on the second trading day, surpassing the $2 trillion threshold. Saudi Aramco was listed as the fifth-largest public company in the world in the 2020 Forbes Global 2000. In March 2021, Saudi Aramco reported that lockdowns around the world following the COVID-19 pandemic had reduced demand for oil and caused earnings in 2020 to decline by almost 45% compared to 2019.
History:
The oil shortages of World War I and the exclusion of American businesses from Mesopotamia by the United Kingdom and France under the San Remo Petroleum Agreement of 1920 are both factors that contributed to the creation of Saudi Aramco. The "Open Door Policy" was implemented by Herbert Hoover, the secretary of commerce, in 1921 with widespread support from the American public. SoCal's Standard Oil was one of the US businesses looking for new international oil suppliers.
The Bahrain Petroleum Co. (BAPCO), a subsidiary of SoCal, discovered oil in Bahrain on May 30, 1932. This incident increased interest in the Arabian Peninsula's oil resources. The Saudi Arabian government gave SoCal a concession on May 29, 1933, rejecting the Iraq Petroleum Co.'s counteroffer. SoCal was granted the right to explore oil in Saudi Arabia. This concession was given by SoCal to California-Arabian Standard Oil, a fully owned subsidiary (CASOC). The Texas Business (Texaco) bought a 50% part in the concession in 1936 after the company failed to find any oil. The first successful drilling occurred in 1938 at the seventh drill site in Dhahran, also known as Dammam No. 7, after four years of unsuccessful exploration. This well started producing more than 1,500 barrels per day (240 m3/d) right away, giving the business the confidence to keep going. California-Arabian Standard Oil Co.'s name was changed to Arabian American Oil Co. on January 31, 1944. (or Aramco). In 1948, SoCal and Texaco each had 30% of the corporation, with Standard Oil of New Jersey (later known as Exxon) purchasing 30% and Socony Vacuum (later known as Mobil) purchasing 10%. The Red Line Agreement's limitations had to be eased for the newcomers, who were also shareholders in the Iraq Petroleum Co., to be able to engage in this agreement.
Saudi Arabian Aramco facility, 1954
A boundary dispute between Saudi Arabia and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi developed in 1949 as a result of intrusions made into the Emirate by ARAMCO.
King Abdulaziz put pressure on Aramco to agree to a 50/50 profit split in 1950 by threatening to nationalize his nation's oil infrastructure.
A similar procedure involving American oil firms had happened in Venezuela a few years earlier. US Aramco members received a tax advantage from the American government known as the "golden gimmick" that was equal to the earnings handed to King Abdulaziz. The company's corporate headquarters were relocated from New York to Dhahran as a result of the new setup. The Safaniya Oil Field, the biggest offshore field in the world, was founded by the business in 1951. The Ghawar Field was established as the biggest onshore field in the world in 1957 after the discovery of many smaller linked oil resources.
A Master Gas Plan was part of Saudi Arabia's second five-year economic plan in 1975. Instead of burning gas, natural gas would be utilized to create electricity. In 1985, Aramco was able to incorporate a billion standard cubic feet per day (Bscfd) of non-related gas despite the plan's reliance on utilizing the associated gas. The Kuff Formation, a limestone stratum 650 meters (2,130 feet) under the oil-producing Arab Zone, is where this non-associated gas was discovered. To treat the additional non-associated gas found in the deeper Jawf sandstone deposit in 1994, Aramco developed facilities in Hawiyah and Haradh. This raised the Master Gas System's capacity to 9.4 billion scfd.
Exploration:
Geophysicists and geologists make up a significant component of the Saudi Aramco workforce. Since 1982, Saudi Aramco has been looking for potential oil and gas reserves. This procedure is mostly carried out at the EXPEC Advanced Research Center. To help handle the enormous amount of data gathered during exploration, Saudi Aramco first deployed Cray Supercomputers (CRAY-1M) in its EXPEC Advanced Research Center (ECC). However, in 2001, the ECC opted to switch to Linux clusters in favor of the decommissioned Cray systems. To assist Saudi Aramco's exploration in the Red Sea and border regions, ECC deployed a new supercomputing system in late 2009 with a disc storage capacity of 1,050 terabytes (i.e., more than one petabyte), the biggest storage installation in Saudi Aramco's history.
Refining and chemicals:
Although the corporation initially had no intention of refining oil, the Saudi government wanted just one company to handle oil production. As a result, on July 1, 1993, the government issued a royal order uniting Samarec, the nation's oil refining firm, with Saudi Aramco. The biggest crude oil refiner and marketer in the Philippines, Petron Corporation, was given a 40% ownership stake by a Saudi Aramco affiliate the following year. Since that time, Saudi Aramco has been in charge of refining and distributing oil across the nation. Saudi Aramco sold the Ashmore Group, an investment company registered on the London Stock Exchange, its whole interest in 2008. When Ashmore made the requisite tender offer to other shareholders, it also gained an extra 11%. By July 2008, Ashmore owned 50.57% of Petron's equity via its SEA Refinery Holdings B.V. The payment to Ashmore was paid in December 2008. Ashmore bought PNOC's 40% interest in December 2008. San Miguel Corporation (SMC) said in the same month that talks to purchase up to 50.1% of Petron from the Ashmore Group were nearing their conclusion. SMC took up the majority of Petron Corporation's shares in 2010.
- Currently,[when? The daily refining capacity of Saudi Aramco is 5.4 million barrels (860,000 m3/d), divided into 1,000 Mbbl/d (160,000,000 m3/d) for fully owned domestic operations and 2,500 Mbbl/d (400,000,000 m3/d) for international joint and equity ventures.
- The downstream businesses of Saudi Aramco are expanding their focus to include refineries with petrochemical facilities. Their first foray into it was Petro Rabigh, a Sumitomo Chemical Co. joint venture that started in 2005 on the Red Sea coast. Aramco will pay US$631 million to purchase 50% of Royal Dutch Shell's interest in their Saudi Arabian refinery to overtake them as a worldwide leader in chemicals.
Refineries list
domestic refineries list
- Construction of the Jazan Refinery and Terminal Projects (JRTP) (400,000 bbl/d; 64,000 m3/d) is still going on.
- In November 2017, Jeddah Refinery (78,000 bbl/d (12,400 m3/d)) was converted to a product storage terminal.
- Ras Tanura Refinery (87,000 m3/d) at 550,000 bbl/d (includes a Crude Distillation Unit, a Gas Condensate Unit, a hydrocracker, and catalytic reforming)
- The Jubail refinery operated by Saudi Aramco (305,000 bbl/d; 48,500 m3/d)
- (126,000 bbl/d (20,000 m3/d)) Riyadh Refinery
- (245,000 bbl/d (39,000 m3/d) Yanbu Refinery)
- a list of domestic refinery projects
- 400,000 bbl/d (64,000 m3/d) The Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery Co. Ltd. (SAMREF), Yanbu
- (400,000 bbl/d; 64,000 m3/d) Petro Rabigh
- Arabian American Base Oil Co. (Luberef)
- 400,000 bbl/d (64,000 m3/d) Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Co., Jubail
- (400,000 bbl/d; 64,000 m3/d) Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refinery
- List of global refining projects:
- People's Republic of China's Fujian Refining and Petrochemical Co.
- People's Republic of China Sinopec SenMei (Fujian) Petroleum Co. Ltd. (SSPC) Motiva Enterprises LLC United States Port Arthur Texas 101,000 m3/d (635,000 bbl/d)
- 70,700 m3/d Showa Shell, Japan 445,000 bbl/d
- The Republic of Korea, S-Oil 106,400 m3/d (669,000 bbl/d)
- Saudi Refining Inc., Reliance Industries of the United States (no investment) India.
A $10 billion refinery project in Gwadar, which has since been abandoned, was one of the Pakistani projects that Saudi Aramco had at one time investigated. The development of a 300,000 BPD refinery with ethylene steam cracking capability will be built by the Huajin Aramco Petrochemical Company, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and North Huajin Chemical Industries Group, which was announced in 2022.
