Drilling Deeper Into Saudi Aramco's Bid to Go Public

Saudi Arabia is taking steps to put its ambitious agenda for economic reform into practice. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco) CEO Amin Nasser said the company's partial initial public offering (IPO) would list units across the organization -- rather than just the downstream segments, as many had expected. The announcement hints that Riyadh may be making a serious effort to introduce greater transparency and efficiency into the state-owned energy giant's practices, as promised. More important, though, it indicates Riyadh's commitment to forging ahead with a massive overhaul of the Saudi economy, a plan that until now has seen more talk than action. ...