Sale of the century? | The Economist

Sale of the century? | The Economist:

"“THE amounts of oil are incredible, and I have to rub my eyes frequently and say like the farmer: ‘There ain’t no such beast.’” So wrote an American oilman in the Persian Gulf a few years after the discovery in 1938 of a gusher of oil from Saudi Arabia’s Well Number Seven, 4,727 feet (1,440 metres) below the desert floor.

You could say the same today about Saudi Aramco, the state-owned firm that for decades has had exclusive control of Saudi Arabia’s oil and is the world’s biggest, most coveted and secretive oil company. On January 4th the kingdom’s deputy crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman, told The Economist that Saudi Arabia was considering the possibility of floating shares in the company, adding that personally he was “enthusiastic” about the idea. It was a stunning revelation. Officials say options under preliminary consideration range from listing some of Aramco’s petrochemical and other “downstream” firms, to selling shares in the parent company, which includes the core business of producing crude. The staggered nationalisation of the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco), made up of four big American firms, in the 1970s was emblematic of a wave of “resource nationalism” that has helped define the industry (see chart 1)."



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