Aramco Is Selling The Pipes To Feed A Debt Hungry State

Saudi Arabia is no longer living off oil rents. Aramco sales and PIF retrenchment show a kingdom funding US pledges and an arms race with debt.

Saudi Aramco is preparing its largest sale of hard assets yet. The company is studying disposals worth more than 10 billion dollars, centred on stakes in its oil export and storage terminals and parts of its real estate portfolio, according to Bloomberg. For an oil company whose power rests on controlling the physical chokepoints of global oil supply, putting the terminals on the block is not a marginal move. It is a signal that the kingdom is now in the business of monetising the infrastructure of the oil revenues itself.