In 1933, the Saudi Arabian government signed a concession agreement with the Standard Oil Company of California, the predecessor of Chevron, and began oil exploration in most areas of the kingdom. In the same year, Standard Oil of California Arabia was established company. In 1938, the first commercial oil field, the Daman Oilfield, was discovered in Dhahran. In 1936, Chevron sold half of its stake in Arab Company to Texaco Oil Company. In 1940, the Abqaiq oil field was discovered, becoming the fourth largest oil field in Saudi Arabia. In 1944, the Arabian Standard Oil Company of California was renamed Arabian American Oil Co., referred to as Aramco, and was headquartered in San Francisco, USA. In 1948, Exxon and Mayhem joined the company and became a joint venture between four companies. Chevron and Texaco's shares were reduced from 50% to 30% respectively, and Exxon held 30%. , Mobil Corporation holds a 10% stake.

In the mid-1940s, Aramco established its own refinery in Ras Tanura.

In 1948, the Ghawar field, the largest onshore oil field in the world so far, was discovered and started production in 1951. In the same year, the offshore Safaniyah field was discovered ). In 1960, Aramco's annual crude oil production reached 60 million tons, an increase of 57.7% from 1950. During this period, the headquarters of Aramco had moved to Doha, Saudi Arabia. In order to compete for control of oil, the Saudi Arabian government fought resolutely with American companies.

The Safaniyah Oilfield is located in the northeastern waters of Saudi Arabia, with proven reserves of 3.32 billion tons. The crude oil is transported via pipelines to Tripoli and Sidon in Libya, and to Baniyas Port in Syria for loading. Part of it is exported to Ras Tanura. The oil field was discovered in 1951 and it is considered the largest offshore oil field in the world. It began production in 1957 and flows 50,000 barrels of crude oil per day from 18 wells. Since 1962, 25 wells have produced 350,000 barrels of oil per day. In just 4 years and 9 months, production increased 6 times. Its reserves are approximately 3.7 billion barrels of oil and 536 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

In 1960, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), including Saudi Arabia, was established. On November 30, 1962, the Saudi Arabian government established a completely state-owned Petroleum and Mining Corporation. Its purpose was to make the government Be able to participate in operations in the petroleum industry, including all operations on Aramco’s concessions. Throughout the 1960s, the history of the development of Saudi Arabian Petroleum and Mining Company was the history of the Saudi Arabian government’s struggle to gain control of oil from Aramco’s four American joint ventures.

During the oil crisis of the 1970s, Aramco produced as much as 300 million tons of oil per year and successfully raised oil prices, thereby improving the Saudi Arabian government's position in its fight with U.S. companies. be in a better position in the struggle. In 1972, Aramco finally agreed to the Saudi Arabian government's equity participation request. In 1973, the Saudi Arabian government participated in 25% of Aramco's shares, rising to 60% in 1974 and reaching 100% in 1980. The U.S. company was responsible for sales to Saudi Arabia. Crude oil that the government cannot afford to sell itself.

The soaring oil prices during the first oil crisis in 1973-1974 increased the revenue of the Saudi Arabian government, which in turn led to a surge in oil production. By 1980, Saudi Arabia's annual crude oil production soared from 190 million tons 10 years ago to 495 million tons. In 1983, the Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center was established.

Since 1980, Saudi Arabia has adopted a large number of measures to reduce crude oil production in order to maintain oil prices. By 1985, the Saudi Arabian government began a plan to quickly restore Saudi Arabia's crude oil market share, and production increased rapidly, causing oil prices to drop by 62% to 66% in 1986. The implementation of the above-mentioned production restriction and price protection policy and the collapse of oil prices in 1986 caused Aramco's revenue to decline rapidly, and it had to lay off a large number of employees.

In 1986, the company began a nationwide exploration plan, and the scope of exploration continued to expand. By 1995, 17 new oil and gas fields had been discovered. In Central Arabia, ultra-light, low-sulfur crude oil that met the world's highest standards was discovered and began Put into production. At the same time, in order to ensure that the company can provide customers with crude oil that meets seasonal needs and grade requirements through oil transmission stations on both sides of the Kingdom before the end of the 20th century, the company began to implement a series of oil and natural gas projects in the Oriental Province and Central Arabia in 1989. The large-scale expansion project of the east-west crude oil transportation pipeline system and the Yanbu crude oil export transfer station has restored the maximum sustained annual crude oil production capacity to 500 million tons.

In 1982, the Saudi Arabian Oil Company Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center was put into use. The center is one of the largest and most advanced geoscience facilities in the world, and second to none in the Middle East. Close cooperation with the center and the establishment of its associated laboratories and research and development centers have enabled Aramco to advance in the upstream (exploration and production) In terms of technical support, we basically do not rely on other oil companies.

The center can process and analyze digital data from two-dimensional seismic detection; horizontal drilling technology was introduced in 1991; its computer center has a giant computer network and uses the latest technology hardware and application software to process and analyze all seismic detection drilling data, allowing the company to utilize its resources more efficiently.

In March 1987, in order to maintain the crude oil market share occupied by Saudi Arabia during the oil surplus period in the 1960s, Saudi Arabia signed a 62.5 million contract with four American companies relying on its relationship with Aramco’s original shareholder companies. tons/year of long-term oil supply contract, but not long after, Saudi Arabia suspended the contract.

In 1988, according to the royal decree, the Saudi Arabian National Oil Company (Saudi Arabia Aramco) was formally established, taking over all the assets and operating rights of the original Aramco, becoming the only company engaged in oil exploration in Saudi Arabia. and development business companies. In the same year, the company and Texaco Petroleum Company formed Star Enterprises, the sixth largest oil sales company in the United States.

In 1991, Saudi Arabian Oil Company acquired 35% of South Korea's Ssangyong Petroleum Refining Company.

In July 1993, the Saudi Arabian government issued the M/1 Imperial Order, transferring all the state-owned refining product distribution and marketing business of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the government’s half of the shares in the three joint venture refineries to Saudi Arabia. Arab Oil Company Management. At this point, Saudi Aramco controls all the hydrocarbon industries in the kingdom except lubricants. By July 1997, the Saudi Arabian government decided to transfer 71% of Petrolube's shares and 70% of Lubere's shares to Aramco, making the company officially involved in the national lubricants industry.

In 1994, the company completed a five-year plan to restore its maximum sustained annual crude oil production capacity to 500 million tons.

Now, the company has 27 oil tankers, including 4 very large oil tankers, 19 giant oil tankers (each oil tanker has a loading capacity of 290,000 to 301,000 tons) and 4 product oil tankers. All tankers belong to its subsidiary Vera International Shipping Co., Ltd. The company also charters some ships at regular intervals to transport crude oil to some ports in the United States and Europe. Most customers in the Far East have historically been responsible for transporting crude oil themselves, with assistance provided by Saudi Aramco's marketing support branch in the region. In addition, in order to meet the flexible oil transportation needs in Europe and the United States, the company has long-term storage and transfer facilities in St. Lucia, St. Eustancia and Rotterdam in the Caribbean, with a total capacity of 21.92 billion tons.

In terms of oil exploration and development, Saudi Arabia Aramco is committed to increasing reserves, increasing production, strengthening the production of light crude oil, and reducing the proportion of heavy crude oil. In 1993, the large-scale Marjan project to expand offshore crude oil production capacity was completed (the project included the construction of two offshore oil and gas separation plants with a daily output of 250,000 barrels and one of the world's largest offshore natural gas compression plants) and the Zuluf oil field The project has increased the daily production capacity of Arabian Medium crude oil by 10.96 million tons. In 1994, the Eastern Saudi Arabian Company discovered non-associated sulfur-free natural gas and condensed deep gas fields. Continuous exploration in the area south of Riyadh in the Kingdom has discovered more than 15 oil fields containing Arabian ultra-light crude oil. In 1998, 25 million tons/year of Arabian ultra-light crude oil will be produced here. At the same time, Saudi Arabia's Aramco is preparing to shut down several northern offshore oil fields that produce heavier crude oil. In 1996, Saudi Arabian Aramco began investing in a US$6 billion project, including increasing the production of the Ghawar oil field and building an oil and gas separation unit in Haradh (the separation unit was put into operation in 1996, with a daily output of 33% of Arabian Light Crude Oil). million barrels), and the development of the Sheba oil field.

In terms of international operations, the company completed the new construction plan of 15 supertankers in early 1995. Each of these 15 giant oil tankers has a total deadweight tonnage of 290,000 to 301,000 tons and can carry at least 2 million barrels of crude oil. Each vessel is capable of delivering more than 9 million barrels of crude oil annually to the company's European and U.S. customers.

Following the economic recovery in 1996, Saudi Arabia's economy continued to grow in 1997. The recovery of the economy has led to more vigorous development of Saudi Arabia's oil industry. Saudi Arabia has invested billions of dollars to develop its oil industry and will build refineries in the Asia-Pacific region and increase Saudi Arabia's share of refining and sales in the United States, Russia, and Europe. The continuous surge in oil prices has attracted many people to extract oil. Currently, the utilization rate of offshore drilling has reached 90%. In addition, the number of Aramco's drilling rigs has also increased by 30% and brought more profits, from the initial 3 to 30, which are responsible for offshore drilling work. Currently, Aramco has a brand new project focusing on the shallow waters of the Gulf of Saudi Arabia. In the future, it will focus on this place, which has never been developed in deep water areas.

Now let’s look at the role of technology. People have always regarded oil and gas as an industry with very slow technological development. What we need to do is how to develop through technology. In fact, technology is increasing drilling capabilities and Play a very important role in improving profits. Nowadays, drilling technology is becoming more and more complex. 80% of the world's oil fields use parallel drilling. Simple vertical drilling is no longer applicable.

In addition, geological navigation uses satellites to continuously see the development conditions of different regions 24 hours a day. The data obtained by the center will then be transmitted to on-site staff, which will be very convenient. Aramco typically has 8 layers of oil reservoirs with a total depth of 40,384 feet. It uses very advanced methods to monitor oil field production and uses fully integrated and integrated computer-controlled oil depots. How to extract oil is not the real challenge. The real challenge is how to extract oil safely, healthily and protect the environment. So what Aramco needs to do now is to provide the greatest value and have the highest competitiveness and reliability.