Riyadh — Orders for Saudi Aramco’s debut international bonds topped $100 billion on Tuesday, a record breaking vote of market confidence for the oil giant.

Before the six-part bond deal was marketed on Monday, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said initial indications of interest for the paper were over $30 billion.

Demand for the paper surpasses the $67 billion in demand for Saudi Arabia’s inaugural issue in 2016.

The Aramco bond has attracted interest from a wide range of investors, as the oil producer’s vast profits would put its debt rating in the same league as independent oil majors like Exxon Mobil and Shell.

Previously reluctant to do so, Aramco last week opened for the first time its books to investor scrutiny, showing it is by far the most profitable company in the world.

Having made core earnings of $224 billion last year and with $86 billion in free cash flow at the end of 2018, Aramco does not need to borrow.

The issue follows on the heels of Aramco’s planned $69.1 billion acquisition of a 70 percent stake in petrochemicals firm Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.

Aramco, however, said the bond issue was not linked to the SABIC acquisition, which will be paid in tranches through internal cash flow and, potentially, other resources.

The bonds are divided into tranches of three, five, 10, 20 and 30 years. The offering also includes a three-year floating rate bond. — Reuters