Saudi Aramco affected by the fall in energy prices: the world’s largest oil company saw its profits fall by 38% in the second quarter
Saudi Aramco’s profits fell by more than a third due to falling energy prices.
But the world’s biggest oil company is still willing to return billions of pounds to shareholders.
The company, which is 90 percent Saudi state-owned, reported profits of £23.5 billion for the three months to June, down 38 percent from £37.9 billion in the second. quarter of last year, a period covering the early stages of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Shell and BP have revealed that their quarterly profits have been hit by falling oil prices.
Brent crude prices averaged $78 a barrel during the period, down from $114 in the three months to June last year.
Depression: Saudi Aramco’s profits have plunged by more than a third, but the world’s biggest oil company is still keen to return billions of pounds to shareholders.
But despite falling profits, Aramco said it would pay a dividend of just over £15.2bn for the second quarter to its shareholders, as well as an additional £7.7bn performance-linked payment for the next. quarter.
In total, the company doled out £31bn to shareholders in the first half of the year, of which Saudi Arabia will have received £28bn.
Saudi Aramco, based in Dhahran in eastern Arabia, has exclusive rights to exploit the country’s vast oil reserves, which supply about a tenth of the world’s demand for oil.
Aramco’s total oil and gas production in the second quarter was the equivalent of 13.5 million barrels of oil per day. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), owns 4 percent of Aramco.
PIF is tasked with using Saudi Arabia’s oil wealth to invest in diversifying the economy away from oil.
He has made high-profile forays into soccer and golf, as well as stakes in taxi app Uber and video game maker Activision Blizzard.
Aramco sold shares publicly for the first time in a 2019 initial public offering on the Riyadh stock market when it raised a record £20bn.
It is one of the most valuable companies in the world, with a market capitalization of £1.7 trillion.
Russ Mold, an analyst at AJ Bell, said the shareholder momentum showed that funds in the company remained “plentiful.”
“Hardcore seekers of stock market income will be pleased, environmental activists less so, especially as Aramco is increasing its capex budget on oil and gas fields and a new petrochemical plant,” he said.
