Khalid al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s minister of energy, industry and mineral resources, announced the initiative for an international expansion of the country's fossil fuel monopoly before the planned stock market flotation. Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Saudi Aramco, is primarily looking at the gas sector, but together with oil it will challenge rivals like Shell and ExxonMobil, he claimed in remarks quoted on Tuesday by the Financial Times. He revealed officials are exploring investments in Russia and the United States but also Australia.
Even with the strong investment in diversification to other activities, the state's share of revenue from the two materials isn't likely to decline below a range of 40% to 50%, according to the article.
The global push is being conducted with the intention to attract foreign investors to the initial public offering, according to Al-Falih, also the company's chairman. He acknowledged the purchase of Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) would partly be funded with debt. The minister said domestic oil production would come in at 9.8 million barrels per day this month, compared to 11 million from November.
