Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) acquired an additional 22.50% shareholding in Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Company (Petro Rabigh) from Sumitomo Chemical Corporation for $702 million, with a nominal value of SAR 7 per share.

The oil giant became Petro Rabigh’s largest shareholder with a stake of nearly 60%, while Sumitomo retains an equity ownership of 15%, according to a press release.

The transaction backs Aramco’s commitment to accelerating its strategic downstream expansion to promote value creation, business integration, and portfolio diversification.

It also boosts its ability to support the transformation program underway at Petro Rabigh, which includes targeted asset upgrades to improve the yield of high-margin products and foster plant reliability.

Hussain Al Qahtani, Aramco Senior Vice President of Fuels, said: “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.”

Under the joint deal, first announced in August 2024, Aramco and Sumitomo will inject a total of $1.40 billion to partly prepay Petro Rabigh’s debt and support its future growth opportunities.

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, the two sides will pump 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 also waived a total of $1.50 billion in shareholder loans to Petro Rabigh, improving its capital structure and partially remediating its accumulated losses, which reached SAR 7.33 billion as of 30 June 2025.