LONDON: Saudi Aramco has started marketing a dollar-denominated bond sale as the world’s biggest oil company joins a slew of new debt sales from across the Gulf.
Low oil prices are encouraging corporations from across the region to tap debt markets which has already spurred bond issuance past last year’s record and through the $100 billion barrier.
The trend is expected to continue next year with debt issuance expected to reach $140 billion, according to Goldman Sachs. Most of that will come from the Gulf states and Latin America.
“Current market conditions are favorable for Aramco to raise debt and demand is expected to be strong,” Monica Malik, chief economist at ADCB, told Arab News. “The funds raised will help with the dividend payments committed.”
Citi, Goldman Sachs International, HSBC, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and NCB Capital are working on the debt sale, Aramco said in a filing on Monday.
Aramco did not disclose the size of the sale, which has already attracted more than $20 billion in orders, Reuters reported.
Oil companies worldwide are responding to a dramatic decline in demand as pandemic-related lockdowns have reduced the need for gasoline and aviation fuel at a time when the market was already well supplied with crude oil.
Weakening demand has focused attention on the strategy of OPEC+ producers. The group is now considering delaying earlier plans to increase output by about 2 million barrels per day (bpd) from January.
“We as a group do not want to give the markets any excuse to react negatively,” said Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman at the start of a meeting of the OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee.
