Saudi Aramco has long contended that it has reserves of about 260bn barrels of oil. The exact size of the Kingdom’s oil fields have heretofore never been released and investors have had to rely on the government’s official statistics.
“Everything that Saudi Aramco has, that will be shared, that will be verified by independent third parties”, Khalid al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, told the media.
“The reserves would not be sold, but the company’s ability to produce from the reserves is being studied”, Falih said in January.
OPEC is moving closer toward finalizing this month its first deal since 2008 to limit oil output, with most members prepared to offer Iran significant flexibility on production volumes, media sources said last week.
“I think if we can reach an agreement, God willing, the price would rapidly reach above $50 per barrel”.
This is set to change when Aramco sells off $100bn worth of its shares in the world’s biggest ever IPO.
Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said in October that he feels “comfortable” that market conditions will allow his company to list its IPO in 2018.
“I think the time in 2018 will be nearly right”.
Saudi Aramco is preparing to make its oil reserve figures public ahead of its initial public offering.
