Saudi Aramco records historic $161bn profit last year

Saudi Aramco, one of the world's biggest oil company, has reported earning $161 billion in 2022, claiming the highest-ever recorded annual profit by a publicly listed company and drawing immediate criticism from activists.

The monster profit by the firm came off the back of energy prices rising following Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year, with sanctions limiting the sale of Moscow’s oil and natural gas in Western markets.

Aramco also hopes to increase its production to take advantage of market demand as China re-enters the global market after lifting its coronavirus restrictions. That could raise the billions needed to pay for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans to develop futuristic cityscapes to pivot Saudi Arabia away from oil.

However, those plans come despite growing international concerns over the burning of fossil fuels accelerating climate change. Meanwhile, higher energy prices already have strained relations between Riyadh and Washington, as well as driven up inflation worldwide.

“Given that we anticipate oil and gas will remain essential for the foreseeable future, the risks of underinvestment in our industry are real – including contributing to higher energy prices,” Saudi Aramco CEO and President Amin H Nasser said in a statement.

Profits rose 46.5% when compared with the company’s 2021 results of $110bn. Saudi Aramco earned $49bn in 2020 when the world faced the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, travel disruptions and oil prices briefly going negative.

Aramco put its crude production at about 11.5 million barrels a day in 2022 and said it hoped to reach 13 million barrels a day by 2027.

To boost that production, it plans to spend as much as $55bn this year on capital projects.

Aramco also declared a dividend of $19.5bn for the fourth quarter of 2022, to be paid in the first quarter of this year.

Aramco’s results, viewed as a bellwether for the global energy market, mirror the huge profits seen at energy giants BP, ExxonMobil, Shell and others in 2022.

But the sheer size of the $161bn profit overshadowed even its own previous results, as well as records by Apple, Vodafone and the US Federal National Mortgage Association, or Fannie Mae.