Saudi Arabia's counter-move is ready to react to low oil prices. Riyadh's government has launched the sale on the market of almost 5% of the giant Aramco and will equip itself with a 2 trillion dollar sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world. Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud explained it this way: "Saudi Arabia will be able to live without more oil from 2020".
The philosophy of the "Vision 2030" project - this is the name of the operation developed by Riyadh - has a clear objective: to diversify the Saudi economy which today depends for more than 70% on oil. Economy which, due to the collapse in crude oil prices, has suffered a heavy setback in the last two years, provoking social tensions due to the cut in subsidies on fuels and the introduction of new indirect taxes which have aroused strong resentment in the population, accustomed to the easy profits generated by a resource, oil, which in Saudi Arabia has one of the lowest extraction costs on the planet.
The placement of Aramco, among the first National Oil Company (NOC) in the world, should take place in a joint listing in Saudi Arabia and perhaps in the USA and will go to finance the super sovereign wealth fund. The latter, explained the Saudi prince, "will go to control more than 10% of the world's investment capacity and its volume will represent more than 3% of existing assets".
Now all that remains is to see if the announcements will follow the facts. If the program is confirmed, there is no doubt that the decision represents a real revolution which will have a significant impact on the global energy and financial scenarios.
