SINGAPORE — Marwa Al-Khuzaim was named to lead the Singapore wing of Saudi Aramco, the world’s top oil exporter, thus becoming the first woman to become head of an overseas office, the company said late on Wednesday.

Al-Khuzaim will helm Aramco Asia Singapore as managing director from Dec. 1, overseeing the company’s corporate strategies in Southeast Asia and Australia. She will be taking over from Nader Al-Arfaj, Aramco said in a statement.

Al-Khuzaim will be responsible for the marketing of crude oil, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and oil products, and drive the performance of services such as supply chain, procurement and inspection in Singapore, Aramco added in its statement.

In her role, Al-Khuzaim will be in charge of Aramco’s corporate strategies in Southeast Asia and Australia. Al-Khuzaim was previously a supply chain director at Aramco Chemicals Company, a unit of Aramco, the company said.

Her appointment comes before the world’s most profitable company starts a share sale on Nov. 17 in an initial public offering (IPO) that may raise between $20 billion and $40 billion.

Saudi Aramco had said it would start taking bids from investors on Nov. 17 in a highly anticipated stock offering, as it released its prospectus recently.

The 658-page document said the final share price would be determined on Dec. 5, a day after subscriptions close, in what is expected to be the world's biggest initial public offering.

Aramco said it will sell a part of its shares to institutional investors, including foreign companies, as well as to individual Saudis and other Gulf nationals.

The company said it has decided to sell up to 0.5 percent of its shares to individual investors while it will decide on the percentage for larger investors later.

"The targeted percentage of Offer Shares allocable to individual investors will be up to 0.5 percent of the shares," the prospectus said.

The company said it would determine the percentage to be sold to institutional investors after consultations with its financial advisors and global coordinators consisting of major international banks.

Even though the size of the IPO has not yet been disclosed, it is expected to be the biggest ever, raising over $30 billion. — Agencies