沙特阿美，全世界最能賺錢的公司要上市了
Pop quiz: What’s the most profitable company in the world? Apple? Google?
小測驗：世界上最賺錢的公司是什麼公司？是蘋果？還是谷歌？
Nope. Those two don’t even come close. The answer is Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, Aramco. In 2018, Saudi Aramco made $111 billion dollars in profit. The second-most profitable company, Apple, made $60 billion that year.
都不是，這兩家公司都差遠了。最賺錢的公司是沙特阿拉伯的國家石油公司——沙特阿美石油公司。2018年沙特阿美純利潤爲1110億美元，同年第二大盈利公司蘋果公司的利潤爲600億美元。
On November 3, Aramco officially announced its plan to go public for the first time in the company’s 86-year history. And on November 17, the oil giant announced the company could be valued at $1.7 trillion. Energy historian Ellen R. Wald joined Today, Explained to explain why Aramco’s initial public offering (IPO) is such a big deal.
11月3日，成立86年的阿美公司首次正式宣佈上市計劃。11月17日這家石油巨頭公司宣佈估值爲1.7萬億美元。能源歷史學家Ellen R. Wald作客播客《Today, Explained》解釋了爲什麼阿美公司上市如此重要。
As the most profitable company in the entire world, she says, the company’s IPO is going to set major records. And since it’s the largest oil company in the world, it’s likely that a lot of everyday things we use — from plastic to the energy fueling our cars — touches this company.
她說這家公司是全球最賺錢的公司，首次公開募股將創下重大紀錄。因爲它是世界最大的石油公司，我們日常使用的很多東西，從塑料到汽車燃料，可能都與這家公司有關。
“In the United States,” Wald says as an example, “Aramco owns the largest refinery in the entire country. And it also owns Shell Gasoline Stations in the southeastern United States. So many Americans may be buying oil — or gasoline — that is made by Aramco, and they don’t even know it.”
Wald舉例說：“在美國阿美公司擁有全國最大的煉油廠，在美國東南部還有殼牌加油站，所以很多美國人可能都在買阿美公司的燃油或汽油，而他們自己可能都不知道。”
But some say the timing for the Aramco IPO couldn’t be worse. One reason for that: Some people think that the world has or will soon reach peak oil demand. Another, Wald explains, is the “PR nightmare” that Saudi Arabia created with the killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
但一些人說阿美公司上市時間選錯了，其中一個原因是：有些人認爲全世界已經或將很快達到石油需求峯值。Wald解釋說另外一個原因是沙特阿拉伯針對持不同政見的沙特記者賈邁勒·卡舒吉死亡事件製造的“公關噩夢”。
