Saudi Aramco Valuation

Executive Summary

Saudi Aramco (Aramco) the largest oil producer in the world, accounting for more than 10% of world oil production, has Upstream and Downstream activities with the former accounting for bulk of the profits generated. Upstream division has high gross margins of about 77% compared to 5.8% for the Downstream Division. Upstream activities comprise both crude oil as well as natural gas and its associated products, though much of the production comes from crude oil. Aramco supplies its oil partly to meet the consumption needs of the domestic economy, but main revenues are from exports. It supplies to the domestic economy that are at subsidized rates are compensated by the government for the subsidies provided through price equalization mechanism. Aramco has one of the lowest oil production cost among all the countries due to advantageous geological formation of oil reserves.