Riyadh – Oil giant Saudi Aramco announced first-quarter net profit of USD 31.9 billion on Tuesday, down 19.25% from a year earlier after a drop in crude prices.
The result was lower than the USD 39.5 billion reported in the same period in 2022, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused oil prices to surge.
It is more than three-quarters of the USD 40.5 billion in combined first-quarter profits reported by the five oil majors: BP and Shell in Britain, ExxonMobil and Chevron in the United States, and TotalEnergies in France.
“The results reflect Aramco’s continued high reliability, focus on cost and our ability to react to market conditions as we generate strong cash flows and further strengthen the balance sheet,” president and CEO Amin H. Nasser said in a statement.
“We are… moving forward with our capacity expansion, and our long-term outlook remains unchanged,” he added.
Aramco is the jewel of the Saudi economy and the main source of revenue for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious economic and social reform programme known as Vision 2030.
The firm reported record profits totalling USD 161.1 billion last year, allowing the kingdom to notch up its first annual budget surplus in nearly a decade.
“Net income would be higher still, but Aramco is ramping up investments in contrast to the (international oil companies) which are still retaining more capital discipline,” said Jamie Ingram, senior editor at MEES.
In mid-April, Saudi Arabia announced it was transferring a 4% chunk of Aramco shares, worth nearly USD 80 billion, to Sanabil Investments, a firm controlled by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), one of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds with more than USD 620 billion in assets.
An earlier transfer of 4% of Aramco shares last year went directly to the PIF.
Budget Deficit
The national budget approved for 2023 foresees a surplus of SR 16 billion (USD 4 billion) and GDP growth of 3.1%, the finance ministry said in December.
On Sunday, the finance ministry announced a budget deficit of SR 2.9 billion (roughly USD 773 million) for the first quarter of 2023, reflecting a 3% decline in oil revenues and a 29% jump in expenditures, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
“This level of deficit does not cause concern in light of the strong financial position of public finances, so there is a great ability to continue the expansionary fiscal policy” in support of Vision 2030 reforms, the news agency said.
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