Saudi Aramco has announced the biggest quarterly profit of any public company in history.
The state-controlled fossil fuel giant made a profit of $48.4bn in the three months to the end of June, up 90% on the same period a year earlier and equivalent to around half a billion dollars of profit every day.
The Telegraph reports that Aramco’s haul almost equalled the combined profits of the five biggest Western oil companies during the same period. BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron and TotalEnergies made a combined $51bn in the second quarter, breaking their own profit records in the process.
The Saudi profits also comfortably eclipsed Apple’s best ever quarter. The iPhone maker, which recently overtook Aramco as the world's biggest company by market capitalisation, made $34bn in the first three months of the year.
Oil companies have been boosted by soaring demand and escalating prices since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The war has disrupted supplies and prompted Western sanctions on Vladimir Putin’s oil, which has restricted global supply.
Energy transition
Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser said: “Our record second-quarter results reflect increasing demand for our products — particularly as a low-cost producer with one of the lowest upstream carbon intensities in the industry.
“While global market volatility and economic uncertainty remain, events during the first half of this year support our view that ongoing investment in our industry is essential — both to help ensure markets remain well supplied and to facilitate an orderly energy transition.
“In fact, we expect oil demand to continue to grow for the rest of the decade, despite downward economic pressures on short-term global forecasts.
“But while there is a very real and present need to safeguard the security of energy supplies, climate goals remain critical, which is why Aramco is working to increase production from multiple energy sources — including oil and gas, as well as renewables, and blue hydrogen.
“We are progressing the largest capital program in our history, and our approach is to invest in the reliable energy and petrochemicals that the world needs, while developing lower-carbon solutions that can contribute to the broader energy transition.”
FTSE 100
The UK's top share index, the FTSE 100, moved up another 25 points to 7,526 shortly after opening this morning, following Friday's 34-point gain.
Brent crude futures were 0.97% lower at $97.16 a barrel.
Companies reporting today
- Half-year results: Phoenix Group