ISLAMABAD/DHAHRAN: Oil giant Saudi Aramco has announced earning $161 billion profit last year – the highest-ever recorded annual profit by a publicly listed company.
The massive profit – represents a 46.5% rise for the state-owned company, compared with last year’s $110 billion – came amid the rise in energy prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with sanctions limiting the sale of Moscow’s oil and natural gas in Western markets.
Aramco’s plans to produce 13m barrels per day by 2027
The company, known formally as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., put its crude production at about 11.5 million barrels per day in 2022 and said it was hopeful to reach 13 million barrels per day by 2027. To boost that production, it plans to spend as much as $55bn this year on capital projects.
Aramco is the latest energy firm record profits, after America’s ExxonMobil made $55.7bn, and Britain’s Shell reported earning $39.9 billion.
Aramco also declared a dividend of $19.5 billion for the October to December quarter of 2022, to be paid in the first quarter of this year. Most of that will go to the Saudi government, which owns nearly 95% of the shares in the company.
President and CEO of Aramco, Amin Nasser said: “Given that we anticipate oil and gas will remain essential in the foreseeable future, the risks of underinvestment in our industry are real, including contributing to higher energy prices.”
He added that to address those challenges, the company would not only focus on expanding the production of oil, gas and chemicals but also invest in new lower-carbon technologies.
Aramco – the world’s second-most valuable company after America’s Apple – is a major emitter of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
