Foreign Investors Are Pouring Into This Middle East Oil Giant

Highly leveraged U.S. exploration and production (or E&P) companies have lately been struggling with dwindling valuations and endless bankruptcies as investors lose their appetite for shale while private equity markets increasingly close their doors.  In sharp contrast, Middle East state-owned oil and gas companies (national oil companies, or NOCs) seem to be having little trouble courting foreign investments.  Middle East NOCs tend to be notoriously secretive, with Saudi Aramco’s much-hyped IPO and subsequent $2 trillion valuation…