Saudi Aramco is the House of Saud’s Oil Throne

Now publicly-traded, Saudi Arabia's state oil company is becoming more of both a conglomerate and an integrated global corporation. It is a rare company that backs a state, rather than vice versa.

Manifa oil field in Saudi Arabia, located near a coral reef. Photo from Saudi Aramco. Source.

With yearly earnings of $247 billion, the world’s most profitable company by far is Saudi Aramco.¹ It is also the most important revenue source for the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where the state-owned company effectively holds a monopoly on the hydrocarbon industry.² In 2023, crude oil and refined petroleum were 24% of Saudi Arabia’s GDP, 60% of the government budget, and nearly 80% of exports.³ Saudi Aramco is by far the most significant oil-producing institution worldwide, producing roughly ten million barrels of oil per day or 10% of global oil demand, with the capacity to produce another two million barrels per day.⁴ This makes Saudi Arabia the second-largest oil producer after the U.S.⁵ Saudi oil is essential to the economies of East Asia and thus to most of recent and much of future expected real global economic growth, with over half of crude oil exported to just three countries: China, Japan, and South Korea.⁶ Altogether, Asia imports close to 80% of Saudi crude oil exports.⁷ Since its shares first listed publicly in 2019, the company has expanded vertically in the oil industry and further into petrochemicals and other industries.