(Bloomberg) --

Saudi Aramco is promoting trading executives in a change that underscores their growing importance to the world’s biggest oil company.

Ibrahim Al-Buainain has been moved up from head of trading to a new position of vice president for trading, sales and supply planning, Aramco said to Bloomberg. His deputy, Mohammed Al-Mulhim, will take over as chief executive officer of Aramco Trading Co.

The promotions and the integration of the trading arm with marketing and shipping align Aramco more closely with other oil majors such as BP Plc and TotalEnergies SE, who often earn billions of dollars annually from dealing in energy products. The shift comes as Aramco considers an initial public offering of the trading unit amid a boom in energy prices, Bloomberg reported last month.

Aramco declined to comment on any IPO plans and whether this move is linked to such a decision.

The trading arm, known as ATC, was created in 2011 mainly to buy and sell fuels like gasoline and diesel. Most of its initial business involved dealing in products from Aramco’s refineries, but it has since expanded and now trades oil produced outside of Saudi Arabia too. Last month, Bloomberg reported that it sold its first shipment of West African crude.

ATC has also branched into liquefied natural gas and has offices in London, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

In 2020, Al-Buainain said ATC traded around 5 million barrels a day of crude and refined products, and wanted to increase that to 6 million by 2023.

Since its IPO in Riyadh in 2019, Aramco has raised tens of billions of dollars selling stakes in oil- and gas-pipeline businesses. It’s also set up a division to look at raising money from more asset sales.

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