The son of the Saudi king said this week he has a plan to wean the country off oil and prepare the country for a post-fossil future.
Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in a lengthy interview with Bloomberg, said he wants the country to sell shares of Aramco to the public in an initial public offering and shift the state oil company to a diversified industrial company.
“IPOing Aramco and transferring its shares to [a public investment fund] will technically make investments the source of Saudi government revenue, not oil,” the prince told Bloomberg. “What is left now is to diversify investments. So within 20 years, we will be an economy or state that doesn’t depend mainly on oil.”
Saudi Arabia plans to hold an initial public offering of less than 5 percent of Aramco in 2017 or 2018, according to the report. The company is the largest oil company in the world and worth an estimated $2.13 trillion, according to Bloomberg.
Saudia Arabia has led the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in keeping up oil production to try and keep up market share as the United States became more competitive in the energy sector. Many oil-producing countries have been hurt by the subsequent collapse in oil prices, but Saudi Arabia has been somewhat insulated from the downturn due to its huge reserves of oil and cash.
However, the Saudi prince told Bloomberg that the downturn in prices does give the country the incentive to start preparing for a leaner future.
He said the Saudis already have tightened their spending and touted the future of the investment fund.
“Undoubtedly, it will be the largest fund on Earth,” the prince told Bloomberg. “This will happen as soon as Aramco goes public.”
