Regional rank: 1

Value: $43.64 billion

Industry: Oil & gas

Saudi Aramco, formerly the Arabian-American Oil Co., is a Saudi Arabian public petroleum and natural gas company. In 2022, Aramco has once again been crowned the Middle East’s, and therefore also Saudi Arabia’s, most valuable brand.

This year, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company saw an increase in its brand value by 16 percent to $43.6 billion, accounting for almost as much value as the next five most valuable brands combined in the Brand Finance Middle East 150 2022 ranking.

Aramco traces its beginnings to 1933 when a concession agreement was signed between Saudi Arabia and the Standard Oil Co. of California. Drilling began in 1935, and in 1938 commercial oil production began.

Aramco is one of the biggest companies in the world by revenue. The company has both the world’s second-largest proven crude oil reserves, and largest daily oil production of all oil-producing companies.

Aramco operates Ghawar Field, the world’s largest onshore oil field, and Safaniya Field, the world’s largest offshore oil field. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Aramco was ranked as the fifth largest public company in the world. Despite that, the COVID-19 pandemic curbed demand for oil, and Aramco’s 2021 revenues were almost 45 percent less than in 2019.

In 2021, Saudi Aramco offered a 50-year partnership with China to develop new technologies to combat climate change and announced plans to achieve net-zero carbon emissions from its wholly-owned operations by 2050.

Aramco announced plans to increase its production capacity from 12 million barrels a day to 13 million by 2027.