Riyadh – Mubasher: Russian pension funds are weighing investment in the planned initial public offering (IPO) of Saudi Aramco in a bid to boost the partnership between the world’s two top oil producers, said head of Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev on Tuesday.

The Chinese partners also may invest in the IPO, Reuters reported, citing Dmitriev as saying.

The Russian top official expected that the country’s investments in the IPO will not be large as Moscow already has a robust position in the oil sector.

“Extending such cooperation for many more years would be very useful for the market. It has proven its efficiency, when we were targeting balancing supply and demand rather than targeting a particular oil price,” Dmitriev noted.

On 1 January 2018, the Saudi government amended Aramco to be a joint-stock company.

The Kingdom plans to sell a 5% stake of the international biggest oil firm, amid valuation of about $2 trillion.