Saudi Aramco

Big Oil often suggests ExxonMobil or Chevron. But Saudi Arabia’s $1.9-trillion giant dwarfs all its competitors, pumping nearly 1 in every 11 barrels of oil the world uses, and in 2022 booking more profits than any other company yet. Despite falling revenues, this year Aramco plans to transfer about $124 billion to the government and its sovereign wealth fund—money plowed into the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s futuristic urban projects, megacontracts with sports icons, investments in U.S. tech, and much else. In April, BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, on whose board Aramco CEO Amin Nasser sits, announced a new $5 billion Saudi investment firm. All this gives MBS rare global leverage, as the world reels from inflation and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. More than four years after President Joe Biden vowed to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken has traveled to the kingdom five times since Oct. 7, seeking MBS’s help in negotiating peace. So long as Aramco keeps pumping millions of barrels a day, such leverage is unlikely to weaken.