Reports that the Chinese are offering to buy a 5% stake in Aramco have cast further doubts over the future of the oil behemoth’s IPO.

They say a week is a long time in politics but if the news stories surrounding Saudi Aramco are anything to go by, it also counts as a long time in business.

Concerns have been building for some time about the likelihood of the much-feted Aramco IPO taking place as planned in 2018  concerns that have been validated by a raft of conflicting...