DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia — From robots to sniffer drones, Saudi Aramco has ramped up spending on technological innovation while its rivals cut back amid soft oil prices, and the energy giant hopes to keep its edge after its much-anticipated IPO.

Saudi Arabia is offering a sliver of the company in its upcoming initial public offering that is the bedrock of Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman's ambitious strategy to overhaul the oil-reliant economy.

Its market debut on the Riyadh stock exchange will raise pressure for higher profit margins on a company that so far has been answerable to no one except the government.

In recent years the world's most profitable company, billed as a juggernaut of innovation, increased spending on research and development as most of its competitors scaled back.

Aramco said it incurred R&D expenses of $591 million in 2018, up from $507 million in the previous year.

Its technological prowess was on display in a recent media tour of its sprawling Dhahran headquarters in eastern Saudi Arabia, akin to a manicured American suburb with quaint houses, shopping plazas and schools for its 15,000-strong workforce.

Engineers hunched over computers in an air-conditioned command center with giant screens tracking the flow of crude from oil fields, through a complex web of pipelines and refineries, to tankers dispatched around the world.

Workers displayed innovations, from production-boosting drilling technology to nimble robots that crawl over pipes to carry out repairs and drones fitted with "sniffers" to detect leaks and inspect flare tips.

"Over the past five years, our R&D spending has more than doubled," said Ahmad Al-Khowaiter, Aramco's chief technology officer.

"That has enabled investment in world class talent and research centers."

Aramco says its 1,300 scientists and engineers at 12 research centers around the world — from Beijing to Detroit — help it file new patents every year.

Officials say the large-scale investments have helped it pump crude at a fraction of the cost of its rivals from beneath its rolling sand dunes and seas.

But an expensive R&D effort may not appeal to investors as profits slip. In the first nine months of this year, Aramco said its net profit dropped 18 percent to $68.2 billion.

Analysts say Aramco could announce an intention to list two or three percent of the company on Riyadh's Tadawul exchange. Its prospectus said it would start taking bids from investors on Nov. 17, but it did not disclose the size of the sale or the pricing range.

Given the size of the company, even a scaled-down valuation could still make the offering the world's largest — generating funds to develop non-energy sectors deemed important for employment generation — from tourism to entertainment. — AFP