Economic security

Saudi Arabia plans $2.6 trillion megafund for life after oil

Saudi Arabia is getting ready for the twilight of the oil age by creating the world's largest sovereign wealth fund for the kingdom's most prized assets.

Over a five-hour conversation, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman laid out his vision for the Public Investment Fund, which will eventually control more than $US2 trillion ($2.6 trillion) and help wean the kingdom off oil.

As part of that strategy, the prince said, Saudi will sell shares in Aramco's parent company and transform the oil giant into an industrial conglomerate. The initial public offering could happen as soon as next year, with the country currently planning to sell less than 5 per cent.

"IPOing Aramco and transferring its shares to PIF [the Public Investment Fund] will technically make investments the source of Saudi government revenue, not oil," the prince said in an interview at the royal compound in Riyadh that ended at 4 am Thursday. "What is left now is to diversify investments. So within 20 years, we will be an economy or state that doesn't depend mainly on oil."