xx: An employee walks near an oil tank at Saudi Aramco's Ras Tanura oil refinery and oil terminal. The company is preparing to raise debt in part to pay for the acquisition of a majority stake in domestic petrochemical group Sabic. — Reuters
LONDON: Saudi Aramco was the world’s most profitable company in 2018, easily surpassing US behemoths including Apple Inc and Exxon Mobil Corp, according to accounts published by ratings agencies before the firm’s debut in the international bond market.
Yet the Saudi kingdom’s influence on the state oil producer via high taxation is also denting its profitability and credit-worthiness, with cash generated per barrel below that of Big Oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc. That’s getting in the way of Aramco achieving a much higher credit rating.
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