Saudi Aramco, the state-owned national oil company of Saudi Arabia, is the largest oil corporation in the world and the world's largest in terms of proven crude oil reserves and production. Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Aramco also operates the world's largest single hydrocarbon network, the Master Gas System. It was formerly known as just Aramco, an acronym for Arabian American Oil Company. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... A government corporation or government-owned corporation is a legal entity created by a government to exercise some of the powers of the government. ... This article is about Dhahran, the city. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Pumpjack pumping an oil well near Lubbock, Texas Ignacy Łukasiewicz - inventor of the refining of kerosene from crude oil. ... In chemistry, a hydrocarbon is a cleaning solution consisting only of carbon (C) and hydrogen (H). ... For the tax agency in the United Kingdom of the same name, see HM Revenue and Customs. ... For the album by the Kaiser Chiefs see Employment (album) Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos and other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML... A government corporation or government-owned corporation is a legal entity created by a government to exercise some of the powers of the government. ... This article is about Dhahran, the city. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Backronym and Apronym (Discuss) Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations, such as NATO, laser, and ABC, written as the initial letter or letters of words, and pronounced on the basis of this abbreviated written form. ...

History

Saudi Aramco's history dates back to May 29, 1933, when the Government of Saudi Arabia signed a concessionary agreement with Standard Oil of California (Socal) allowing them to explore Saudi Arabia for oil. Standard Oil of California passed this concession to a wholly-owned subsidiary called California-Arabian Standard Oil Co. (Casoc). In 1936 with the company having no success at locating oil, the Texas Oil Company purchased a 50% stake of the concession. May 29 is the 149th day of the year (150th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... Chevron was founded after an 1879 oil discovery in Pico Canyon, near the Santa Susana Mountains north of Los Angeles, California as the Pacific Coast Oil Co. ... In business, a subsidiary is a company controlled by another company or corporation. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Texaco is the name of an American oil company that was merged into Chevron Corporation in 2001. ...

After a long search for oil that lasted around four years without success, the first success came with the seventh drill site in Dammam, an area located a few miles north of Dhahran in 1938, a well referred to as Dammam number 7. The discovery of this well, which immediately produced over 1,500 barrels per day, gave the company the hope to continue and flourish. The company name was changed in 1944 from California-Arabian Standard Oil Company to Arabian American Oil Company (or Aramco). In 1948 Standard Oil of California and the Texas Oil Company were joined as investors by Standard Oil of New Jersey who purchased 30% of the company, and Socony Vacuum who purchased 10% of the company, leaving Standard Oil of California and the Texas Oil Company with equal 30% shares. Dammam Corniche Dammam (Also Damman or Ad Dammām) is the capital of the Ash Sharqiyah province in Saudi Arabia. ... This article is about Dhahran, the city. ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), headquartered in Irving, Texas, is an oil producer and distributor formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. ... Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), headquartered in Irving, Texas, is an oil producer and distributor formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. ...

In 1950, King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud threatened to nationalize his country's oil facilities, thus pressuring Aramco to agree to share its profits on oil sales 50/50. 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 lost in sharing oil profits with Ibn Saud. A tax exemption is an exemption to the tax law of a state or nation in which part of the taxes that would normally be collected from an individual or an organization are instead forgone. ... The Golden Gimmick refers to the deal struck in 1950 between King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia and the Arabian-American Oil Company (ARAMCO), a consortium dominated by three US oil companies and one British oil company. ...

In 1973 the Saudi Arabian government acquired a 25% share of Aramco, increased this to 60% by 1974 and finally acquired full control of Aramco by 1980. In November 1988 the company changed its name from Arabian American Oil Company to Saudi Arabian Oil Company (or Saudi Aramco). Year 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... Look up November in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ...

Timeline

• 1932 Oil is discovered in Bahrain. Socal begins a year-long series of negotiations with the Saudi government.
• 1933 Saudi Arabia grants oil concession to California Arabian Standard Oil Company (Casoc), affiliate of Standard Oil of California (Socal, today's Chevron). Oil prospecting begins on Kingdom's east coast.
• 1936 Texas Oil Company (now Texaco) acquires 50% interest in Socal's concession. The joint venture became known as the California Texas Oil Company, or Caltex.
• 1938 Kingdom's first commercial oil field discovered at Dhahran. Crude is exported by barge to Bahrain.
• 1939 First tanker load of petroleum is exported. (Socal’s D.G. Scofield)
• 1944 Casoc changes its name to Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco).
• 1945 Ras Tanura Refinery begins operations (eventually becomes the largest oil-refinery in the world).
• 1948 Standard Oil of New Jersey (now Exxon) and Socony-Vacuum Oil (now Mobil) join Socal and Texaco as owners of Aramco.
• 1950 1,700-km Trans-Arabian Pipe Line (Tapline) is completed, linking Eastern Province oil fields to Lebanon and the Mediterranean.
• 1950 The US government bestows upon the US member companies a tax break equivalent to 50% of oil profits, a deal known as the Golden gimmick.
• 1956 Aramco confirms scale of Ghawar and Safaniya, world's largest oil field and largest offshore field, respectively.
• 1961 Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) - propane and butane - is first processed at Ras Tanura and shipped to customers.
• 1966 Tankers begin calling at "Sea Island", new offshore crude oil loading platform off Ras Tanura.
• 1973 Saudi Government acquires 25 percent interest in Aramco.
• 1975 Master Gas System project is launched.
• 1980 Saudi Government acquires 100 percent participation interest in Aramco, purchasing almost all of the company's assets.
• 1981 East-West Pipelines, built for Aramco natural gas liquids and crude oil, link Eastern Province fields with Yanbu on the Red Sea.
• 1982 Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center (EXPEC) opens in Dhahran, a milestone in "Saudizing" the company's operations.
• 1984 Company acquires its first four supertankers.
• 1987 East-West Crude Oil Pipeline expansion project is completed, boosting capacity to 3.2 million barrels (510,000 m³) per day.

Saudi Aramco's previous logo (used from 1988 until 2001) is a redesign of the original Aramco's logo, which was used for more than 45 years

• 1988 Saudi Arabian Oil Company, or Saudi Aramco, is established.
• 1989 High-quality oil and gas are discovered south of Riyadh - the first find outside original operating area.
• 1991 Company plays major role combating Persian Gulf oil spill, the world's largest.
• 1992 East-West Crude Oil Pipeline capacity is boosted to 5 million barrels (800,000 m³) per day. Saudi Aramco affiliate purchases 35% interest in SsangYong Oil Refining Company of the Republic of Korea.
• 1993 Saudi Aramco takes charge of Kingdom's domestic refining, marketing, distribution and joint-venture refining interests.
• 1994 Maximum sustained crude-oil production capacity is returned to 10 million barrels (1,600,000 m³) per day. Company acquires a 40% equity interest in Petron, largest refiner in the Philippines.
• 1995 Company completes a program to build 15 very large crude carriers. Saudi Aramco President and CEO Ali I. Al-Naimi is named the Kingdom's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, and Chairman of Saudi Aramco. Abdallah S. Jum'ah is named the CEO, President, and Director of Saudi Aramco.
• 1996 Saudi Aramco acquires 50 percent of Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries and Avinoil from the Vardinoyannis family. Company also assumes controlling interest in two Jiddah-based lubricants companies, now known as Saudi Aramco Lubricating Oil Refining Company (Luberef) and Saudi Arabian Lubricating Oil Company (Petrolube).
• 1998 Saudi Aramco, Texaco and Shell establish Motiva Enterprises LLC, a major refining and marketing joint venture in the southern and eastern United States.
• 1999 HRH Crown Prince 'Abd Allah inaugurates the Shaybah field in the Rub' al-Khali desert, one of the largest projects of its kind in the world goes on stream. The Dhahran-Riyadh-Qasim multi-product pipeline and the Ras Tanura Upgrade project are completed. The second Saudi Aramco-Mobil lubricating oil refinery (Luberef II) in Yanbu' commences operations.
• 2000 Petroleum Intelligence Weekly ranks the company No.1 in the world for the 11th straight year, based on the Kingdom's crude oil reserves and production. Aramco Gulf Operations Limited is established to assume management of the government's petroleum interest in the Offshore Neutral Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. New facilities are under construction in the Haradh and Hawiyah gas plant projects to process gas for delivery to the Master Gas System and on to domestic markets.
• 2001 Hawiyah Gas Plant, capable of processing up to 1.6 billion standard cubic feet per day of non-associated gas, comes on stream.
• 2003 Haradh Gas Plant completed two and a half months ahead of schedule.
• 2004 HRH Crown Prince 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abd Al-'Aziz Al Saud, First Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the National Guard, inaugurates the 800,000 barrel-per-day Qatif-Abu Sa'fah Producing Plants mega project. In addition to the crude, the plants provide 370 million standard cubic feet of associated gas daily.
• 2005 Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. sign a joint venture agreement for the development of a large, integrated refining and petrochemical complex in the Red Sea town of Rabigh, on Saudi Arabia's west coast. Saudi Aramco sells its 50-percent share of Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries and Avinoil back to the Vardinoyannis family.
• 2006 Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical broke ground on PETRORabigh, an integrated refining/petrochemical project. Haradh III was completed, yielding 300,000 bpd of oil. Accords were signed for two export refineries -- Jubail (with Total) and in Yanbu' (with Conoco-Phillips).

Texaco was the name of an American oil company that was merged into Chevron Corporation in 2001. ... Map of Ras Tanura Region Ras Tanura (more accurately Ras Tannūrah, Arabic: رأس تنورة meaning top/head of the barbeque spit) is a city in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia located on a peninsula extending into the Persian Gulf. ... Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), headquartered in Irving, Texas, is an oil producer and distributor formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. ... The Trans-Arabian Pipeline Company (Tapline), was founded as a joint venture between the Standard Oil company of New Jersey (now Esso), Standard Oil of California (Chevron), The Texas Company (Texaco), and Socony-Vacuum Oil Company (Mobil), however, it eventually became a fully owned subsidary of Aramco. ... A tax exemption is an exemption to the tax law of a state or nation in which part of the taxes that would normally be collected from an individual or an organization are instead forgone. ... The Golden Gimmick refers to the deal struck in 1950 between King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia and the Arabian-American Oil Company (ARAMCO), a consortium dominated by three US oil companies and one British oil company. ... Ghawar Field is an oil field in Saudi Arabia. ... 45 kg LPG cylinders Liquefied petroleum gas (also called liquified petroleum gas, liquid petroleum gas, LPG, LP Gas, or autogas) is a mixture of hydrocarbon gases used as a fuel in heating appliances and vehicles, and increasingly replacing chlorofluorocarbons as an aerosol propellant and a refrigerant to reduce damage to... This article is about Dhahran, the city. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Introduction Haradh Gas Plant is one of the major gas plants in Saudi Arabia. ...

Present

Saudi Aramco's Core Area in Dhahran City

From its headquarters in Dhahran on the eastern shores of the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Aramco manages virtually all of Saudi Arabia's enormous hydrocarbon enterprise. From the giant Ghawar and Safaniya oil fields, the world's largest onshore and offshore fields, to the leading-edge technology at the Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center, and from one of the largest and most modern fleets of supertankers to refining and marketing joint ventures around the globe, Saudi Aramco is positioned to continue to play its leading role in meeting the world's demand for oil. Saudi Aramco is responsible for 99 percent of the Kingdom's proven crude oil reserves of 259 billion barrels (41.2 10¹⁰m³) -- about a quarter of the world's total. That is more than double the total of Iraq, the country with the world's second largest reserves, and nearly 12 times the reserves of the United States. Saudi Aramco produces and exports more crude oil than any other company. Recent production has averaged some 8 million barrels (1,300,000 m³) per day. That is more than twice the output of the next highest producer and nearly five times greater than the largest U.S. oil company. Image File history File links AramcoCoreArea. ... Image File history File links AramcoCoreArea. ... This article is about Dhahran, the city. ... This article is about Dhahran, the city. ... Ghawar Field is a large oil field in Saudi Arabia. ...

Saudi Aramco maintains a maximum sustained crude production capacity of 8.5 million barrels per day. Saudi Aramco ranks among the top ten companies in gas production worldwide. The company is also a leader in both the production and export of natural gas liquids (NGL), and a major producer of refined products. The company produces natural gas in association with crude oil and nonassociated gas from deep, independent gas fields. This gas is used as fuel and feedstock for the Kingdom's backbone industries and utilities, and for export and domestic consumption as NGL. A vigorous programme is currently under way to expand gas production and processing capabilities to meet increasing demand for gas at home to power the Kingdom's robust domestic economic growth.

Saudi Aramco's oil operations encompass the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including territorial waters in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. Totaling more than 1.5 million square kilometers, this area is larger than the combined areas of Texas, California, Oklahoma and Utah, or of France, Spain and Germany. Most production comes from fields in the coastal plains of the Eastern Province in an area extending 300 kilometers north and south of Dhahran. Map of the Persian Gulf. ...

In May 2005, a Saudi Aramco VP announced Aramco's plans to build projects worth about 487.5 billion Saudi Riyals (US $130 billion) in the next 5 years. Due to the unprecedented global demand for oil, Aramco announced that the number of its oil rigs will double by the end of 2006 [1].

Associated companies/subsidiaries

• Aramco Services Company (ASC): HQ in Houston.
• Aramco Overseas Company B.V. (AOC B.V.) - HQ in the Netherlands.
• Aramco Associated Company (AAC)
• Aramco Training Services Company
• Saudi Refining, Inc. (SRI)
  • Aramco Financial Services Company (AFSC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Refining, Inc.
• Saudi Petroleum International, Inc. (SPI) - HQ in New York.
• Bolanter Corporation N.V.
• Pandlewood Corporation N.V.
• Saudi Petroleum Overseas Ltd. - HQ in London/Tokyo.
• Vela International Marine Ltd.: HQ in Dhahran.

Houston redirects here. ... Aramco Associated Company, with offices at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, owns, operates and leases a variety of aircraft used in Saudi Aramco’s operations. ... Aramco Training Services Company administers an International Exchange Visitor Program in support of the training, development and education of selected employees of Saudi Aramco and ASC affiliates. ... Saudi Refining, Inc. ... Aramco Financial Services Company (AFSC) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saudi Refining, Inc. ... Saudi Petroleum International, Inc. ... NY redirects here. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...   , literally Eastern capital) is a unique subnational administrative region of Japan with characteristics of both a prefecture and a city. ... Vela International Marine is a Saudi Aramco owned company that has been established in 1984. ... This article is about Dhahran, the city. ...

Major contractors

• Schlumberger
• Halliburton
• Arabian Drilling Company
• WesternGeco
• AlOsais
• Dar Al Riyadh
• Saudconsult
• Baker Oil Tools
• Bashaarco Corporation
• Weatherford
• Al Suwaiket
• Kanoo Group
• Al Moajil Group
• Zamil Group
• Tamimi Group
• Ahmad Hamad Al Gosaibi & Brothers
• Abdulla Fouad Group of Companies
• Al Karam Al Arabi for Catering Services Ltd.
• WorleyParsons
• Rosen Middle East[2]

Schlumberger Limited is the worlds largest oilfield services corporation operating in approximately 80 countries, with about 70,000 people of 140 nationalities. ... Halliburton Energy Services (NYSE: HAL) is a multinational corporation with operations in over 120 countries. ... WesternGeco, a joint venture of Schlumberger Limited and Baker Hughes, is the worlds largest seismic contracting company. ... Weatherford is either: Weatherford, Oklahoma, United States Weatherford, Texas, United States A dormitory at Oregon State University This is a disambiguation page — a list of articles associated with the same title. ... Established in 1890, the Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo Group of Companies, named after its founder, is the oldest pan-Persian Gulf commercial enterprise with activities in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen and Qatar. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Ahmad Hamad Al Gosaibi & Brothers (A.H. Al Gosaibi & Bros. ... The Abdulla Fouad Group of Companies was founded in the 1950s in Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia. ... WorleyParsons Limited ASX: WOR is a large Australian provider of professional services to the energy, resource, and complex process industries. ...

Footnotes

1. ^ Estimated between 150 billion and 350 billion dollars. Varies greatly year to year due to high dependency upon hydrocarbon prices.

See also

• List of oil fields: All of those located in Saudi Arabia are owned by Saudi Aramco. Note that the list is not complete.
• Saudi Aramco Residential Camp in Dhahran
• Ras Tanura
• Abqaiq
• Udhailiyah
• Shaybah
• Discovery! The Search for Arabian Oil

This list of oil fields includes major fields of the past and present. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Map of Ras Tanura Region Ras Tanura (more accurately Ras Tannūrah, Arabic: رأس تنورة meaning top/head of the barbeque spit) is a city in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia located on a peninsula extending into the Persian Gulf. ... Map of Abqaiq Region Abqaiq (also Buqayq, Arabic: بقيق buqayq, meaning father of the sand flies) is a small city in the interior of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia located in the desert southwest of the Dhahran-Dammam-Khobar metropolitan area. ... Udhailiyah (Arabic: العضيلية ?u ayliyyah) [pronounced Ewd Aleea] is a small oil company compound in the interior of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia located in the desert southwest of the Dhahran-Dammam-Khobar metropolitan area. ... Shaybah, in the middle of the Rub Al-Khali/Empty Quarter desert, is a major Arab light crude oil-producing site in Saudi Arabia. ... Discovery! The Search for Arabian Oil is a non-fiction book written by Pulitzer Prize winning American author Wallace Stegner. ...

Bibliography

• Robert Vitalis, America's Kingdom, Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier, Stanford University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8047-5446-2

For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ...

External links

• Company site
• Company portal
• Yahoo! — Saudi Arabian Oil Company Company Profile
• "Saudi Aramco is not a state within a state"
• Oil Jobs and Oil Rig Jobs at Saudi Aramco
• AramcoBrats Website - An organisation of individuals who grew up in Saudi Arabia as the dependents of expatriate employees of Saudi Aramco.
• HOME - The Aramco Brats' Story - A movie about the individuals who grew up in Saudi Arabia as the dependents of expatriate employees of Saudi Aramco.
• [3] - A CNN report about the security of oil in Saudi Arabia. Much of it is about Saudi Aramco security.
• Aramco ExPats Website - Aramco ExPats is an online community of expatriates living and working in Saudi Arabia, their spouses and children, former employees, and annuitants of Saudi Aramco.
• Saudi Arabia's crude oil production chart (1980-2004) - Data sourced from the US Department of Energy