Saudi Aramco adds lustre with $7 billion Malaysia investment

Saudi Arabia has announced a $7 billion investment in a giant Malaysian refinery in a bid to bolster the state-owned energy firm Aramco's attractiveness as it prepares to go public. 

The deal between Aramco - the national oil company of Saudi Arabia - and Malaysian state energy firm Petronas over the $27 billion project was signed Tuesday during Saudi King Salman's state visit to Malaysia.

"Saudi Aramco goes public next year and investors will be looking for a company that has breadth in its portfolio," Saudi Energy Minister Khaled al-Falih said after the signing ceremony. 

The planned listing of Aramco in 2018 is expected to be the world's biggest initial public offering - worth more than $2 trillion, according to reports. 

The vast Malaysian refinery scheme under construction in the southern state of Johor near the Singapore border is known as the refinery and petrochemical integrated development project.

It is being led by Petronas, which said development was about 60 percent complete, and set to come online in 2019. 

Under the deal, Aramco will supply up to 70 percent of the crude requirement of the refinery, with natural gas, power and other utilities to be supplied by Petronas. 

Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil exporter but has been hit hard by low oil prices over the past two years.