If there is one thing Saudi Aramco knows (beside the oil & gas sector, that is), it’s how to go big. The company’s initial public offering on Tadawul became the world’s largest at $25.6bn. Its financials, revealed for the first time to the public, outed Saudi Aramco as the world’s most profitable company, raking in $111bn in profit in 2018. If that’s not enough, Saudi Aramco has international ambitions, with plans to go global.
Beyond Saudi Aramco’s incomparable scale, Amin Nasser has earned the top spot on our ranking this year because of his work to improve the industry and to find new avenues for growth at Aramco. He has been outspoken about the need for oil and gas to contribute to global sustainability measures, how energy policymakers should create reasonable goals that can be achieved, and the dire need to resolve the industry’s “crisis of perception,” as he has termed it.
The company literally rose from the ashes this year after attacks on its facilities set them ablaze, a testament to Saudi Aramco’s central position in the global oil & gas industry (and the global economy), & demonstrating the resilience of the oil & gas industry.
