Saudi Aramco is interested in international upstream investment opportunities as the state-controlled oil giant prepares for listing on domestic and international stock exchanges.

“We have a lot of global investments in downstream,” Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih, who is also Aramco’s chairman, told reporters in Vienna on 2 June. ”Post-IPO [initial public offering] and even as we prepare for the IPO, you will find Aramco quite interested into going into international upstream.”

Investments in international gas are of particular interest to Aramco, Al-Falih added. He did not elaborate on the possible targets.

Aramco is already a part of several joint ventures in the refining and petrochemicals sectors with international oil companies (IOCs) inside the kingdom and abroad. Aramco and its subsidiaries own or have an equity interest in more than 5 million barrels a day (b/d) of refining capacity.

Its operations include a joint refinery with UK/Dutch Shell in Jubail, known as Sasreef; a venture with the US’ ExxonMobil in Yanbu, known as Samref; and its Yasref refinery, which is a collaboration with China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec). Yasref has already said it is looking at listing its shares eventually on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul).

Subsidiaries of Aramco abroad include S-Oil in South Korea, and a refinery in Fujian, China which is owned jointly with ExxonMobil and Sinopec.

Saudi Arabia is prioritising gas production to meet rising domestic demand for power. It plans to nearly double gas production to 23 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d) in the next decade.

The firm intends to continue investing in the energy sector to meet rising demand, following its discovery of new oil and gas fields in 2015, Al-Falih said in late May.

Aramco aims to float less than 5 per cent of its shares, as part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, driven by the kingdom’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud to steer the economy away from dependence on crude.

Al-Falih said the targeted time frame to list Aramco by 2018 “is reasonable”.

The Saudi government plans to list shares in Aramco as the first step, which would be followed by a sale in its downstream subsidiaries. Aramco is committed to IPO some of its downstream joint ventures including Sadara with the US’ Dow Chemical, Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company (Satorp) with France’s Total and its Yasref unit.

“Those commitments are in place,” said Al-Falih. ”But we are studying other options like combining them together, so nothing soon. I think the priority now is to list Aramco at the top – the parent company. This is the focus.”

Aramco is in the process of preparing to present options for its part-privatisation to the Supreme Council, CEO Amin Nasser told reporters in early May.