Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Thursday that he still expected national oil giant Saudi Aramco IPO-ARMO.SE to conduct a public offer of its shares in 2018.

Falih was speaking at a conference in Abu Dhabi. Riyadh has said it plans to sell up to 5 percent of the company in what could be the world's largest initial public offer of equity, raising tens of billions of dollars.

Officials have been working since early last year on complex details of the offer, including legal conditions, how to value Aramco's assets, and on which exchanges its shares would be listed.