Saudi oil giant Aramco reports £83 billion profit in 2024

Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Aramco has reported a 106.25 billion-dollar profit (£83 billion) in 2024, down 12% from the previous year as lower energy prices now squeeze the kingdom’s multi-trillion-dollar development plans.

A filing on Riyadh’s Tadawul stock exchange showed Aramco, formally known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co, had revenues of 436 billion dollars (£343 billion) in 2024. That compares with 440.88 billion dollars (£347.06 billion) in 2023.

Aramco reported a 121 billion-dollar (£95.2 billion) annual profit in 2023, down from its 2022 record also thanks to lower energy prices.

“The decrease was primarily driven by lower revenue and other income related to sales, higher operating costs, as well as lower finance and other income,” Aramco said in its filing.

Aramco has a market value of 1.74 trillion dollars (£1.37 trillion), making it the world’s sixth-most valuable company behind Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon and Alphabet, which owns Google.

Aramco will pay dividends of 21.36 billion dollars (£16.81 billion) for the fourth quarter, which includes a far-smaller performance dividend of 220 million dollars (£173 million).

The company expects to pay dividends of 85.4 billion dollars (£67.2 billion) this year, which is far lower and will further erode cash that Saudi Arabia’s monarchy can expect for the year.

“Our strong net income and increased base dividend illustrate Aramco’s exceptional resilience,” Aramco chief executive and president Amin H Nasser said in a statement.

Already, Saudi’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been digging a straight-line city in the desert for his 500 billion-dollar (£394 billion) project at NEOM in Saudi Arabia’s western desert on the Red Sea.

He also will need to build tens of billions of dollars’ worth of new stadiums and infrastructure ahead of the kingdom hosting the 2034 Fifa World Cup.

Meanwhile, he has also pledged potentially 600 billion dollars (£472 billion) in US investments to President Donald Trump to entice him to the kingdom on his first foreign trip as president.

Saudi Arabia is also the possible venue for a meeting between Mr Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

All that and Opec+ moving towards increasing production means Saudi Arabia will likely need to take on new debt to fund the crown prince’s vast ambitions.