Aramco completes acquisition of additional stake in Petro Rabigh

• Aramco becomes largest shareholder, enhancing its ability to support Petro Rabigh’s transformation   
• Planned upgrades of Petro Rabigh assets expected to improve yields and enhance reliability
  
  

Aramco, one of the world’s leading integrated energy and chemicals companies, has advanced its strategic downstream expansion with the acquisition of an additional 22.5% stake in Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Company (Petro Rabigh) from Sumitomo Chemical Corporation (Sumitomo) for $702 million (SAR 7 per share). Aramco is now Petro Rabigh’s largest shareholder with an equity stake of approximately 60%, while Sumitomo retains an equity stake of 15%.

The transaction reflects Aramco’s commitment to its partners and affiliates, as it forges ahead with a downstream strategy that promotes value creation, business integration and portfolio diversification. The transaction also enhances Aramco’s ability to support the transformation program underway at Petro Rabigh, which includes targeted asset upgrades to improve the yield of high-margin products and enhance plant reliability. 

Hussain A. Al Qahtani, Aramco Senior Vice President of Fuels, said: “Petro Rabigh is a key player in the Kingdom’s downstream sector and this additional investment by Aramco reflects strong belief in its long-term prospects. It also underscores Aramco’s focus on downstream expansion and value creation. We look forward to exploring closer integration with Petro Rabigh, with the aim of unlocking new opportunities and complementing Petro Rabigh’s broader transformation objectives, which include upgrading its product mix, enhancing asset reliability and optimizing operations.” 

As part of the transaction, first announced in August 2024, Aramco and Sumitomo agreed to inject a total of $1.4 billion to partly prepay Petro Rabigh’s debt, supporting its future growth opportunities and strengthening its balance sheet. This injection will involve the innovative issuance by Petro Rabigh of Class B shares, which will be fully subscribed to by Aramco and Sumitomo. Through the Class B share issuance, Aramco and Sumitomo will be able to inject fresh capital without altering Petro Rabigh’s existing governance structure or diluting the voting power of Petro Rabigh’s other shareholders.   

As part of the transaction, Aramco and Sumitomo have also waived a total of $1.5 billion in shareholder loans to Petro Rabigh (completed in two phases in August 2024 and January 2025), improving its capital structure and partially remediating its accumulated losses. 

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