Aramco shares recorded their lowest levels since it started trading
Aramco oil shares reached 34.45 riyals ($9.18) for a brief period in Monday’s transactions, recording the lowest levels since it began trading on December 11, after an initial public offering that broke records.
The stock has lost 11% since registering a peak of 38.70 riyals. The initial offering price was 32 riyals per share, valuing Aramco at $1.7 trillion.
And the market value of the government-owned company, in the first half of last December, to more than 2 trillion US dollars.
The giant oil company shares rose to the maximum allowed for the IPO price for the first time in the Riyadh stock market.
Experts and observers specializing in the oil markets expressed their fear that Iran might launch new attacks on the oil infrastructure in the Kingdom in response to the assassination of one of its most prominent generals, Qasim Soleimani, warning that any new escalation in the Middle East will lead to high prices. The oil.
Analysts and experts believe that a fifth of the world’s oil production will be affected as the region moves towards the brink of war. The price of a barrel of oil will rise to record levels, which may reach close to $100.
The US Department of Defense said that the raid targeted Soleimani, as directed by President Donald Trump, “as the Iranian official was working on developing plans to attack American diplomats and staff in Iraq and the region.”
And soon the global crude oil prices were affected, after the US Defense Department announced the assassination of the Iranian leader, and Brent futures rose by more than 3.2 percent, the highest level in three and a half months at 69 dollars per barrel.
Oil prices will maintain levels above $67 a barrel for Brent during the coming period, with tensions remaining in the region, amid the multiplicity of options that Tehran has previously pursued against US sanctions.
The Strait of Hormuz, in southern Iran, is one of the scenarios that Tehran may resort to as an economic response to the assassination of Soleimani, by disrupting oil supplies from the Gulf states to the world.
The average daily flow of oil in the strait was 21 million barrels per day in 2018, equivalent to 21 percent of the consumption of petroleum liquids worldwide, according to the US Energy Information Administration, making it the largest waterway in the world.
Since last May, American oil tankers and a spy plane have been attacked, near the strait, which is causing the disruption in supplies through which high shipping costs and the rise of global energy prices.
Time and again, Iran has threatened to disrupt oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, causing shocking repercussions for India, China and dozens of other countries that import crude oil in the Middle East in large quantities.
Likewise, the assassination of Soleimani threatens the possibility of Shiite demonstrations in Iraq and the disruption of oil production or export centers in the country ranked as the second largest producer of crude oil in OPEC after Saudi Arabia, with an average of 4.6 million barrels per day.
