Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering (ipo) is now likely to take place in 2021, Khalid al-Falih, Aramco’s chairman and Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources, has told Russian news agency Tass.

The Saudi energy and petrochemicals group had been planning to float 5% of its shares on the Saudi Tadawul and on an international exchange this year, raising more than $100 billion for a new sovereign wealth fund.

However, al-Falih said Aramco must first rebalance its portfolio by building up its downstream operations which are less developed than its upstream business. He said Aramco is the world’s largest upstream company, producing around 14 million bbd of oil equivalent, but its petrochemical portfolio is not so large and not so strong in terms of technology and global reach.

“As a result, we are looking at opportunities globally and domestically. One has been announced – the acquisition of 70% of SABIC, owned now by the Public Investment Fund, and this deal will take at least 18 months to close with regulatory approvals from antitrust agencies globally,” he said in the Tass interview.

Al-Falih added that a joint venture between Aramco and Russian petrochemicals group Sibur is a possibility as well as buying equity in Russian companies, especially those with technologies. He commented: “Aramco continues to look for the right companies. We are doing a lot of projects in many countries – Malaysia, China and recently in India. But, in addition to the mega projects, we are looking for large, medium and small companies to acquire.”

Meanwhile, at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) being held this week in Riyadh, Aramco signed 15 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) and strategic and commercial collaborations worth $34 billion.

CEO Amin Nasser commented: “These agreements support investments in strategic sectors which will further expand the company’s business portfolio while they contribute to the realization of Saudi Vision 2030.  The MoUs will contribute to such areas as refining, chemicals, conversion industries, localization and related new investment and training opportunities, and job creation.”

In a separate move, Aramco has signed an MoU with the Chinese Zhejiang provincial government to acquire a share of Zhejiang Petrochemical’s new refinery project.

Abdulaziz Al Judaimi, senior vice president downstream, said Aramco has a continuous focus on China where it is exploring opportunities for new refining and petrochemicals facilities and making further investments.