Oil giant Saudi Aramco ranks among the world's five most valuable companies

Saudi Aramco, founded 90 years ago on May 29, 1933, is the world's largest oil company. It ranks among the world's five most valuable companies, alongside Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon. It accounts for roughly ten percent of global oil production. The company, which is owned by the Saudi state, has posted record profits in recent years, thanks in part to higher energy prices and improved margins on refined products. Last year, it increased its net profit by nearly 50 percent to a record $161.1 billion (CZK 3.5 trillion), the highest annual profit ever reported by an oil and gas company. Saudi Aramco thus provides a large share of Saudi Arabia's budget

Saudi Aramco was founded as the California-Arabian Standard Oil Company, a subsidiary of the American Standard Oil of California, which had secured a concession to explore for and produce oil in Saudi Arabia. In 1936, the Texas Oil Company acquired half of the concession. A key event came two years later, with the discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia at Dammam. In 1944, the company was renamed the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco for short). In 1948, Standard Oil of New Jersey and Socony-Vacuum became additional shareholders. That year, its headquarters moved from New York to Dhahran, where the company is still based. In 1973, the state bought a 25 percent stake in the company, increasing its share to 60 percent a year later. Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, then acquired the entire company in 1980, retroactive to 1976. The ownership changes were a result of the oil shocks and the international situation.

Today, Saudi Aramco employs about 70.000 people (55.000 of them in its home country) and operates about 220 drilling rigs. It has subsidiaries in China, Egypt, Japan, India, the Netherlands, South Korea, Singapore, Britain and the US. Two percent of the company has been traded on the Riyadh stock exchange since 2019. Its initial public offering was the largest in the world.

Last year, Saudi Aramco announced a partnership with South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor. The companies are jointly working on advanced fuels that could be used in hybrid engines, reducing carbon emissions. This March, it signed an agreement with its Chinese partners to build a refinery and petrochemical complex in northeastern China for 83.7 billion yuan (CZK 267.6 billion), which is due to begin operating in 2026. That same month, Saudi Aramco also announced it would join a joint venture between French automaker Renault and China's Geely Automobile Holdings to develop powertrains.

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