Saudi Aramco is a fully-integrated, global petroleum enterprise and a world leader in exploration and producing, refining, distribution, shipping and marketing; and 100% owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

It manages proven reserves of 260 billion barrels of crude oil and it manages the fourth-largest gas reserves in the world, 239.5 trillion cubic feet. Saudi Aramco, through its affiliate, Vela Marine International Ltd, owns and operates the world's second largest tanker fleet to help transport its crude oil production, which amounted to 3.1 billion barrels in 2007.

Saudi Aramco, through its affiliates, has joint ventures and subsidiary offices in China, Japan, Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Saudi Aramco also refines and distributes oil products throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to meet domestic daily energy demands.

The roots of Saudi Aramco go back nearly seven decades. In 1933, shortly after Saudi Arabia was unified, the Government granted a concession to Standard Oil of California who recognized the potential of oil as a valuable export commodity and a source of revenue to begin building the nation. Standard Oil of California, the parent company of Chevron, was joined later by several other major oil companies and the venture became known as Aramco - the Arabian American Oil Company. In 1938, after five long years of exploration, oil was discovered in commercial volume when a well named Dammam Number 7, near today's headquarters in Dhahran, began to flow -- and ushered in a new era for Saudi Arabia. Things moved quickly, and in 1939 King 'Abd al-'Aziz visited Ras Tanura to inaugurate the first shipload of Saudi crude oil ever exported. The young Kingdom was now officially launched into the international petroleum industry.

Today, Saudi Aramco is one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world. In 2000, Petroleum Intelligence Weekly ranked us No. 1 for the 11th straight year, based on the Kingdom’s crude oil reserves and production.

In other words, the company has enjoyed 75 years of impressive growth – and is set to continue growing well into the future. In the last four years alone, we have undertaken a number of mega projects that have increased our production by more that a million barrels a day.

For more information please go to www.saudiaramco.com