Arabian American Oil Company (active 1932 - Present) Dhahran-based Aramco (now Saudi Aramco (Arabic: أرامكو السعودية‎ ʾArāmkū s-Saʿūdiyyah) is a Saudi Arabian public petroleum and natural gas company. Initially named California-Arabian Standard Oil Co., it was formed by a coalition of American companies seeking new sources of oil, having been excluded from Mesopotamian oil fields by United Kingdom and France since 1920. In the late forties the company's headquarters were moved from New York to Dhahran, but the company maintained offices in the United States (including the company's P.R. department.)