[ccozan]

The company itself might not be traded on stock exchanges, but the products are. Which means, the moment you own 20% of all the oil on the planet, and 25% of the gas [1] , you can compute the value of the company quite easily.

And this value dwarfs Google and Apple very easily.

[1] http://www.londonlovesbusiness.com/business-news/finance/sto...

[narrowrail]

I haven't read an s-1 from Saudi Aramco yet, but in 2014 (when oil was still riding high), they did $1.5T in revenue. Given some of the most favorable valuation methods, let's say 5x revenue== $7.5T. however, margins are important. I think a good estimate for Saudi Aramco is 25% for margins== $1.8T/yr. If/when the Saudi people ever figure out that the royal family captures the vast majority of the revenue from the resources of the entire country, I think the 33M Saudi people are going to start rioting in the streets.

[adrianN]

I know very little about economics, but it seems very weird to me to compute the value of an oil company based on the current price of oil and the reserves it owns. Not all oil it owns is for sale right now at that price and it is very unlikely that the price for oil will stay the same until all reserves are depleted.

[nojvek]

Market value is speculation based on future profits. Sure oil is currently the most energy dense means of portable energy storage in a somewhat affordable manner.

But do keep in mind half of oil goes to fuel cars. Once cars become electric and solar chargers pop up in cities things change considerably.

We only rely on oily and pay absurds amounts of money to Saudi Arabia since we have little choice. Once the alternatives become cheaper, it's better both economically and environmentally to distance away from Saudi oil.

Sure Saudi can make oil cheap as dirt to combat alternatives but then they aren't making as much money. I don't foresee a scenario that in 20 years Saudi oil demand will keep on rising.

Their entire economy is based on natural resources. Not a great place to be.