Since plans for a 5% listing of Saudi Aramco were unveiled in April 2016 as the centerpiece of the Saudi Vision 2030 plan, scrutiny over the pace of progress on the IPO has remained near the headlines.

The ability of the state oil giant to stick to its targeted IPO date of late-2018 has been called into question on several occasions. Such concerns reached a crescendo on 7 September when Riyadh announced it was revising the National Transformation Program 2020 (NTP) which lays out the initial targets required to achieve the Vision. (CONTINUED - 1090 WORDS)