Saudi Arabia would likely carry out an initial public offering for Saudi Aramco in 2021 after it builds up some downstream assets including petrochemical production, Khalid Al-Falih, the country’s energy minister, said. “If you look at the downstream of Aramco it is significant, but is not at the same level as upstream. Our petrochemical portfolio also is not so large, and is not so strong in terms of technology and global reach. So the decision was made that Aramco needs to balance its portfolio,” Al-Falih told Russian state news agency Tass. While Aramco is the world’s largest company in the upstream, with production of about 14 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and 260 billion barrels of oil, as well as 300 trillion cubic feet of gas as reserves, the downstream needs development, he said. “If in the next oil cycle the prices for […]