The Aramco Auction

Unlike most of the world where the big petro companies like BP and Shell are in charge of the fields, in Saudi Arabia everything is controlled by the state company Saudi Aramco. And they control every facet. Exploration, drilling, refining, and transport. What is happening in the next year or two is the biggest change since the Americans were booted out in the seventies. They are auctioning off a 5% share of the company. That doesn't sound like a lot, but the Sauds value the company in the trillions, so this auction is expected to be worth north of a hundred billion dollars. Any time any normal company would have an auction like this, they would open their books and be put through the ringer. Not with the Sauds. They value their company, and if you want a piece of the pie, you gotta fork out big.
This should scare the hell out of anyone. Spending a fortune for a completely unknown reward. Saudi Arabia allegedly has the largest reserves of conventional crude. Who does all the exploration and keeps track of those reserves? Saudi Arabia. That should be a big red flag. Despite losing hundreds of billions in the past few years the Sauds still have money in the bank. Their reason is to finance the new plan for the country. The scheme where they create enough alternate sources of income to be oil independent. So they plan to auction a tiny piece of a company in order to finance a plan to become independent from the proceeds of that company.
Nope not dodgy at all.