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saudi aramco

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selling off 5% of state oil co? 4/19

#1?

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Financial Times, Reuters Pull Saudi Aramco-sponsored Climate Content  - DeSmog

5 24

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/fossil-fuel-giants-reckless-expansion/

not BP?

an comm dr 11 22

Despite repeated warnings that new fossil fuel projects are incompatible with averting climate disaster, oil and gas corporations "are on a massive expansion course" to increase dirty energy production in the coming years, according to an analysis released Thursday at the United Nations COP27 meeting in Egypt.

The new report by the German nonprofit Urgewald and 50 NGO partners, which denounces "an industry willing to sacrifice a livable planet," found that the vast majority of the world's oil and gas companies intend to scale up the extraction of fossil fuels in the years ahead, having collectively dumped $160 billion into exploration since 2020.

None of this investment is consistent with the International Energy Agency's (IEA) blueprint for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, a key component of meeting the Paris agreement's goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels—beyond which impacts will grow increasingly deadly for millions of people, particularly those residing in poor nations that have done the least to cause the crisis.

The IEA made clear in its May 2021 report that no new oil and gas fields can be exploited if the world is to avoid climate catastrophe. But according to Urgewald, 96% of upstream fossil fuel companies (655 out of 685) are planning to expand their operations, and short-term expansion plans have increased by 20% since last year.

According to Urgewald, 512 of these companies are currently "taking active steps to bring 230 billion barrels of oil equivalent (bboe) of untapped resources into production before 2030."

If these fossil fuels are removed from the ground and burned, an additional 115 billion tonnes of heat-trapping carbon dioxide equivalent will be pumped into the atmosphere by the end of the decade. That's 30 times more greenhouse gas pollution than Europe generates each year.

Urgewald's report comes one day after Climate Trace revealed in a separate analysis that global emissions from oil and gas production are up to three times higher than reported.

"The outcome of our calculations is truly frightening," Fiona Hauke, senior oil and gas researcher at Urgewald, said in a statement. "Oil and gas companies' short-term expansion plans are not in line with the net-zero emissions course put forward by the IEA. Keeping these oil and gas resources in the ground is the bare minimum of what is needed to keep 1.5°C attainable."

As the report points out, even "if the oil and gas industry simply maintained its 2021 production level of 56.3 bboe, it alone would exhaust our remaining carbon budget within 15.5 years."

Just over a dozen corporations—including Saudi Aramco, ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, Chevron, and Shell—are responsible for more than half of the industry's short-term expansion efforts, Urgewald found....

https://www.desmog.co.uk/2019/11/04/analysis-why-it-s-risky-invest-saudi-aramco-s-climate-wreckage-sale

board of the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia, known as Saudi Aramco, has given its final approval to proceed with its long awaited part privatization, otherwise known as an “Initial Public Offering” or IPO. It is predicted to be the biggest IPO in history.

The sale is of oil, a large proportion of which we cannot afford to burn if we want a livable future. Read more...

Andy Rowell for Oil Change International

The board of the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia, known as Saudi Aramco, has given its final approval to proceed with its long awaited part privatization, otherwise known as an “Initial Public Offering” or IPO. It is predicted to the biggest IPO in history.

According to Bloomberg, the oil giant has been gauging market conditions and assessing feedback from potential key investors. The Saudi government is reportedly courting powerful anchor investors, including wealthy Gulf families, domestic pension funds, and regional sovereign wealth funds.

Bloomberg notes that: “People involved in the deal say about two percent of Aramco may be sold, which could raise $40 billion. The firm is targeting a valuation of at least $2 trillion – more than double that of Apple Inc.”

Excitement is rising in the Kingdom, with everyone being encouraged to invest in the kingdom’s most important asset, argues Bloomberg. “Many Saudis see the IPO as a demonstration of loyalty”.

On the one hand, one could argue that there is a positive to the sale, in that some see the sale as an attempt by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to kickstart the diversification of the OPEC nation’s economy away from oil.

But that is only a small positive. The Kingdom is awash with oil money. And essentially the sale is of oil, a large proportion of which we cannot afford to burn if we want a livable future.

Climate contradiction

Whereas some see profit. Others see pollution. Whereas some investors see quick cash, others see a climate emergency. Whereas some see strategic assets other see stranded assets.

Often when we talk about our climate crisis and climate emergency, we write about privately owned oil companies, such as Exxon, Shell and BP. We often forget about the state owned ones, and the biggest state oil company of them all, Saudi Aramco.

Last week the Guardian newspaper published details of the 20 fossil fuel companies whose “relentless exploitation of the world’s oil, gas and coal reserves can be directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern era.”

Twelve of the top 20 companies were state-owned. The top company “driving the climate emergency that threatens the future of humanity” was Saudi Aramco, which is behind 4.38 percent of all carbon dioxide and methane emissions since 1965.

But Saudi Aramco was not just the worse polluter historically over the last 50 years. It is also the big climate villain moving forward. According to the Guardian, between “2018 and 2030 Saudi Aramco plans to produce oil and gas equivalent to 27bn tonnes of carbon dioxide. That’s 4.7 percent of the 1.5°C carbon budget.”

Those who invest in Saudi Aramco will be investing in oil production, just at a time when fossil fuel disinvestment increases apace. And rightly so, as CNN points out, one of the risks to the sale is “the potential for reduced oil consumption due to concerns about climate change.”

Financial risk

In 2017, an analysis by Oil Change International which examined the policies needed to meet the Paris climate goals of limiting global warming to “well below” 2°C estimated that these could reduce the value of Saudi Aramco by about 40 percent.

At the time, Greg Muttitt from OCI told the Financial Times, that “New York and London have been competing hard to get the Aramco listing, but I don’t think they have been paying enough attention to how much it would increase oil price risk and climate risk for investors.”

That climate risk has gotten worse over the last eighteen months. This month, Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, warned that companies and industries that are not moving towards zero-carbon emissions will be punished by investors and go bankrupt.

Indeed, a survey published this week of around 100 investors plan to move $920 billion (£725.9bn) out of fossil fuel investments in the next ten years. The survey was published by the Octopus group. Matt Setchell, Co-head of Octopus Renewables, said: “Our children’s futures will be shaped by decisions that are made now by the global investment industry.”

He added: “Given the scale of the challenge and the limited time we have to make a change, the guardians of trillions of dollars of capital have a crucial role to play in averting a climate crisis.”

For this reason, the guardians of trillions of dollars should not be investing in Saudi Aramco’s climate wreckage sale.

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destroying yemen book

2nd hour

https://kpfa.org/episode/upfront-november-19-2018/

owned by royal family, several IPO fail b/c oil running out; they want south yemen fields; want to be next dubai, wealth from sand, go into finance

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http://ecowatch.com/2016/04/28/end-of-the-old-oil-order/

Saudi Aramco (Arabic: أرامكو السعودية‎‎ ʾArāmkō s-Suʿūdiyyah), officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, most popularly known just as Aramco (formerly Arabian-American Oil Company), is a Saudi Arabian national petroleum and natural gas company based in Dhahran.[4][5] Saudi Aramco's value has been estimated at anywhere between US$1.25 trillion[6] and US$10 trillion.[7]

Saudi Aramco has both the world's largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels (4.1×1010 m3),[8] and largest daily oil production.[9]

Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia,[10] Saudi Aramco operates the world's largest single hydrocarbon network, the Master Gas System. Its 2013 crude oil production total was 3.4 billion barrels (540,000,000 m3),[8]^ and it manages over 100 oil and gas fields in Saudi Arabia, including 288.4 trillion standard cubic feet (scf) of natural gas reserves.[8] Saudi Aramco operates the Ghawar Field, the world's largest onshore oil field, and the Safaniya Field, the world's largest offshore oil field.[11]

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History:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Saudi Aramco's origins trace to the oil shortages of World War I and the exclusion of American companies from Mesopotamia by Great Britain and France under the San Remo Petroleum Agreement of 1920.[12] The US Republican administration had popular support for an "Open Door policy", which Herbert Hoover, secretary of commerce, initiated in 1921. Standard Oil of California (SoCal) was among those US companies seeking new sources of oil from abroad.[13]

Through its subsidiary company, the Bahrain Petroleum Co. (BAPCO), SoCal struck oil in Bahrain in May 1932. This event heightened interest in the oil prospects of the Arabian mainland. On 29 May 1933, the Saudi Arabian government granted a concession to SoCal in preference to a rival bid from the Iraq Petroleum Co..[14] The concession allowed SoCal to explore for oil in Saudi Arabia. SoCal assigned this concession to a wholly owned subsidiary, California-Arabian Standard Oil (CASOC). In 1936, with the company having had no success at locating oil, the Texas Oil Co. (Texaco) purchased a 50% stake of the concession.[15]

After four years of fruitless exploration, the first success came with the seventh drill site in Dhahran in 1938, a well referred to as Dammam No. 7. This well immediately produced over 1,500 barrels per day (240 m3/d), giving the company confidence to continue. On 31 January 1944, the company name was changed from California-Arabian Standard Oil Co. to Arabian American Oil Co. (or Aramco).[16] In 1948, Standard Oil of New Jersey (later known as Exxon) purchased 30% and Socony Vacuum (later Mobil) purchased 10% of the company, with SoCal and Texaco retaining 30% each.[17] The newcomers were also shareholders in the Iraq Petroleum Co. and had to get the restrictions of the Red Line Agreement lifted in order to be free to enter into this arrangement.[18]

A similar process had taken place with American oil companies in Venezuela a few years earlier. The American government granted US Aramco member companies a tax break known as the golden gimmick equivalent to the profits given to King Abdulaziz. In the wake of the new arrangement, the company's headquarters were moved from New York to Dhahran.[20] In 1951, the company discovered the Safaniya Oil Field, the world's largest offshore field. In 1957, the discovery of smaller connected oil fields confirmed the Ghawar Field as the world's largest onshore field.[11]In 1950, King Abdulaziz threatened to nationalize his country's oil facilities, thus pressuring Aramco to agree to share profits 50/50.[19]

In 1973, following US support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War, the Saudi Arabian government acquired a 25% stake in Aramco. It increased its shareholding to 60% by 1974, and finally took full control of Aramco by 1980, by acquiring a 100% stake in the company.[21]

Aramco partners continued to operate and manage Saudi Arabia's oil fields.[22] In November 1988, a royal decree changed its name from Arabian American Oil Co. to Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (or Saudi Aramco)[21] and took the management and operations control of Saudi Arabia's oil and gas fields from Aramco and its partners. In 1989–90, high-quality oil and gas was discovered in three areas south of Riyadh—the Raghib area about 77 miles southeast of the capital.[23]

In 2005, Saudi Aramco was the world's largest company with an estimated market value of $781 billion.[24] In 2011, Saudi Aramco started production from the Karan Gas Field, with an output of more than 400 million scf per day.[25]

In January 2016 the Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, announced he was considering listing shares of the state-owned company, and selling around 5% of them in order to build a large sovereign fund.[26]

Operation:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Exploration:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:Saudi Aramco is headquartered in Dhahran, but its operations span the globe and include exploration, production, refining, chemicals, distribution and marketing. All these activities of the company are monitored by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources together with the Supreme Council for Petroleum and Minerals.[27]However, the ministry has much more responsibility in this regard than the council.[27]

A significant portion of the Saudi Aramco workforce consists of geophysicists and geologists. Saudi Aramco has been exploring for oil and gas reservoirs since 1982. Most of this process takes place at the Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center (EXPEC). Originally, Saudi Aramco used Cray Supercomputers (CRAY-1M) in its EXPEC Computer Center (ECC)[28] to assist in processing the colossal quantity of data obtained during exploration and in 2001, ECC decided to use Linux clusters as a replacement for the decommissioned Cray systems. ECC installed a new supercomputing system in late 2009 with a disk storage capacity of 1,050 terabytes (i.e, exceeding one petabyte), the largest storage installation in Saudi Aramco's history to support its exploration in the frontier areas and the Red Sea.[29]

Refining and chemicals:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

While the company did not originally plan on refining oil, the Saudi government wished to have only one company dealing with oil production. Therefore, on 1 July 1993, the government issued a royal decree merging Saudi Aramco with Samarec, the country's oil refining company. The following year, a Saudi Aramco subsidiary acquired a 40% equity interest in Petron Corp., the largest crude oil refiner and marketer in the Philippines. Since then, Saudi Aramco has taken on the responsibility of refining oil and distributing it in the country.[11]

Currently, Saudi Aramco's refining capacity is 5.4 million barrels per day (860,000 m3/d) (International joint and equity ventures: 2,500 Mbbl/d (400,000,000 m3/d), domestic joint ventures: 1,900 mpbd, and wholly owned domestic operations: 1,000 Mbbl/d (160,000,000 m3/d).)[30]^

Saudi Aramco's downstream operations are shifting its emphasis to integrate refineries with petrochemical facilities. Their first venture into it is with Petro Rabigh, which is a joint venture with Sumitomo Chemical Co. that began in 2005 on the coast of the Red Sea.[11]

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