State oil giant Saudi Aramco
and Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC)
said on Saturday they would grant employees a two-month salary
bonus in line with benefits announced by King Abdullah.
Khalid al-Falih, Aramco’s CEO, was quoted as saying in a
statement that the bonus would include employees and trainees.
King Abdullah offered $93 billion in handouts on Friday and
boosted his security and religious police forces, opting for a
mixture of carrot and stick to stave off unrest rocking the Arab
world.
“In response to this generous approach and based on its
social responsibilities, SABIC decided to grant its employees
inside the kingdom a basic salary bonus of two months,” SABIC
said in an emailed statement.
SABIC, the world’s largest petrochemicals company by market
value, is 70-percent by the Saudi government and Aramco is the
major contributor to the Saudi wealth.
In 2010, oil accounted for about 85 percent of the budgetary
revenue of world’s largest oil exporter and around 31 percent of
its gross domestic product.