Prince Mohammed has said that shares of the company will be sold publicly for the first time in its history and that the money will be put into a sovereign wealth fund that will be invested at home and abroad to supplement government revenues.

Saudi Aramco has long been the most effective institution in Saudi Arabia, but it has been intensely private about its finances and how it estimates the kingdom’s oil reserves.

Opening up the company would subject it to new scrutiny that could change its culture in unpredictable ways, analysts say. And routing its worth into investments merely shifts the focus from one type of revenue — from oil — to others that are unpredictable and do nothing to increase the productivity of Saudi workers.

Mr. Falih is a Texas A&M graduate in mechanical engineering who worked his way up the ranks of Saudi Aramco, eventually becoming its chief executive. He is viewed by international oil executives and analysts as an agent of change but still a technocrat who has long been tied to the old Saudi Aramco culture.

Oil executives and analysts described Mr. Falih as one of the most sophisticated and cosmopolitan officials in the world of oil, already widely recognized as a leader among the ministers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, who together control a third of the world’s oil production.

They expect him to encourage a gradual rise in global oil prices while he moves the kingdom away from wasteful domestic energy consumption, a change that will allow the Saudis to increase oil exports in the years to come. He will take over a newly reorganized ministry that will now hold sway over all facets of energy and industry, not just oil.