, Columnist
Who Would Buy 1% Of Aramco?
Splurging almost $20 billion on a low-yielding, low-liquidity stake carrying no influence in a state-owned oil company seems tough to justify these days.
Who wants some of this?
Photographer: FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/Getty Images
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Five years after Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman ventured that “in 2020 we can live without oil,” he is, once again, hawking Saudi Arabia’s oil champion to raise funds. In a recent, sweeping interview with Arab News, he teased the potential sale of 1% of Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Saudi Aramco, to a “huge company” in an oil-importing country.
Who would pay $19 billion for that sliver of the Saudi dream? The obvious candidates are in Asia, where the bulk of Saudi Arabia’s oil exports flow.