Saudi Arabia will list up to 5% of Aramco by 2018

Saudi Arabia has confirmed it plans to float part of the Aramco state oil colossus next year or in 2018 as part of plans to create a $2trn sovereign fund.

Deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman said a stake of Saudi Aramco, or Saudi Arabian Oil Company, said the country currently was planning to sell less than 5%, according to a Bloomberg report.

When it lists, the oil producing giant, whose 260bn-barrel reserves far eclipses BP and Shell's combined 30bn barrels, would be one of, if not the most, valuable companies in the world.

The prince, second in line to the throne, said shares would be offered in all of Aramco rather than just some of its refining subsidiaries, and would be listed on the domestic stock exchange.

"IPOing Aramco and transferring its shares to PIF [Public Investment Fund] will technically make investments the source of Saudi government revenue, not oil," the prince said.

"What is left now is to diversify investments. So within 20 years, we will be an economy or state that doesn’t depend mainly on oil."

Saudi Arabia, as the prime force behind the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has been behind the oversupply that has led to the massive depreciation in the oil price as the cartel looks to force out higher-cost producers.