RIYADH: Saudi Aramco said on Sunday (Mar 12) it achieved “record” profits totalling US$161.1 billion last year, highlighting how a surge in oil prices after Russia invaded Ukraine spurred growth in the world’s biggest crude exporter.
The mostly state-owned energy giant, the world’s second most valuable company behind Apple, said in a filing with the Saudi stock market that net income for 2022 was up 46 per cent from US$110 billion in 2021.
The results – the strongest since Aramco became a listed company in 2019 – were “predominantly due to the impact of higher crude oil prices and volumes sold, and stronger refining margins”, it said.
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Aramco’s gains are consistent with record profits for 2022 reported by the five oil majors – Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP and TotalEnergies – which surpassed US$150 billion and would have been closer to US$200 billion without costly withdrawals from Russia.
They also fuelled Saudi Arabia’s overall economic growth which officials put at 8.7 per cent in 2022, the highest rate in the G20.
The net income figure is nearly double the US$88.2 billion the firm pulled in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.
“Aramco rode the wave of high energy prices in 2022. It’s what the company is geared to do,” said Robert Mogielnicki, of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
“It would have been difficult for Aramco not to perform strongly in 2022.”
Energy prices are expected to stay elevated in 2023, in part because of production cuts approved last October by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Plus or OPEC+ cartel that Riyadh co-leads with Moscow – a move harshly criticised by Washington.
Source: AFP
