Saudi Aramco will sell up to 0.5% of its shares to individual investors in what could be the largest initial public offering in history, Kallanish Energy reports.

The process begins Nov. 17, and closes on Dec. 4, the company said in its IPO prospectus, released last Saturday. The 658-page document comes almost four years after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman first disclosed plans to take the company public.

The government of Saudi Arabia will face a lockup period of six months on further sales of shares after Aramco’s public offering. The IPO is being underwritten by a number of companies, among them J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley.

The world’s biggest oil producer plans to float its shares on the Saudi Stock Exchange, the Tadawul, in December.

Analysts’ valuations of the company have varied from $1.2 trillion to $2.3 trillion. In comparison, ExxonMobil has a market cap of nearly $300 billion and Chevron is valued at roughly $229 billion.

The prospectus shows a near 30% drop in Saudi Aramco’s net income in the third quarter from a year earlier, to $21.3 billion, due to the impact of attacks on key energy facilities temporarily halved the kingdom’s oil production in September, and lower crude prices.

Aramco warned terrorism and armed conflict could materially impact the market price of its shares.

Some industry watchers predict between 1% and 2% of the company will be listed domestically, and another part listed on a major international exchange later.

Stock exchanges from New York, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo have all been vying for Aramco’s international debut. The prospectus released Saturday did not address any of these issues.

This post appeared first on Kallanish Energy News.