Aramco is carving out a standalone gas unit that could eventually be minority-listed

Aramco is splitting off a standalone gas unit, carving out gas out of its upstream and downstream businesses in a structure that could eventually support a minority listing to raise fresh capital, Reuters reports, citing two people familiar with the plans. The arrangement would create a dedicated platform with its own leadership to develop domestic gas, expand overseas LNG, and explore capital-raising options such as further lease-and-leaseback agreements. The energy giant has reportedly tapped Evercore to advise on the restructuring — internally called Project Gamma.

ICYMI- Aramco has already used that playbook on Jafurah. A BlackRock GIP-led consortium invested USD 11 bn in Jafurah’s gas-processing infrastructure last year through a lease-and-leaseback agreement. The assets were placed in Jafurah Midstream Gas Company, with Aramco retaining 51% and the investor group taking 49%, before being leased back to Aramco for 20 years. Jafurah began operating last year and is potentially the largest unconventional gas field outside the US, holding an estimated 230 tcf.

Cash crop

The World Bank Board has approved USD 750 mn for an agrifood project in Turkey, a 50% upsize on the USD 500 mn design set out in the Bank's concept note last December, Turkish Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said last week. The funding is expected to be available to businesses as early as this year, Yumakli added.

Ankara is folding the WB approval into a much larger USD 5.3 bn narrative it first put on the table in May, when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced a 10-year agrifood package covering up to 80% of investment costs, with financing of up to USD 10 mn per business, seven-year maturities and 24-month grace periods, plus a separate USD 500 mn Credit Guarantee Fund arm for smallholders. The government’s targets — 400k farmers and 250k jobs by 2032 — are roughly double what the WB financing is designed to deliver, implying the remaining c. USD 3.9 bn will come from Turkish public funds and participating banks. Neither Ankara nor the Bank has provided the breakdown.

Watch this space: Ankara is treating agrifood as one of the few sectors where it can credibly court multilateral capital as it works through the rest of the disinflation program. The government puts Turkey’s 2025 agricultural output at USD 83.2 bn — seventh globally, up from 12th in 2002 — and forecast a record 140 mn-ton crop harvest this year.

Data point

Turkey’s foreign arrivals are close to stabilizing: Turkey welcomed 34.8 mn foreign visitors in the first eight months (8M) of 2026, down 1.8% y-o-y, according to Culture and Tourism Ministry data. Russia, now Turkey’s largest source market, drove the recovery, climbing to 4.72 mn from 4.55 mn a year earlier. Germany, the UK, Iran and Bulgaria, the country’s remaining major source markets, all slightly softened. Antalya and Istanbul remained the dominant destinations, drawing a combined 22.8 mn visitors — about 65% of the country’s arrivals during the 8M period. Gulf arrivals were a drag, but they constituted a much smaller share of arrivals. Saudi, Turkey’s largest Gulf source, saw arrivals down by 11.1% to 612k. The trend extended to the remaining GCC markets, with Kuwait down 43.5% y-o-y to 92k visitors; Bahrain dropping 34.6% to 24k, the UAE by 32.1% to 46k, and Qatar by 26.1% to 29k.