The giant Saudi oil company, Aramco, announced record profits of $ 161.1 billion for the year 2022, supported by high global energy prices.
These profits represent an increase of 46.5% for the state-owned company, compared to last year.
Aramco is the latest energy company to record record profits, after energy prices rose following the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war in February 2022.
The American Exxon Mobil Corporation achieved $ 55.7 billion, and the British Shell company achieved $ 39.9 billion.
Aramco announced a dividend of $19.5 billion for the first quarter from October to December 2022, to be paid in the first quarter of this year.
Most of the dividend amount will go to the Saudi government, which owns approximately 95% of the company’s shares.
Brent crude, an oil benchmark, is now trading at around $82 a barrel, although prices topped $120 a barrel last March, after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, and last June.
“Aramco rode the wave of higher energy prices in 2022 … and it was difficult for it not to perform strongly in 2022,” said Robert Mogielnicki of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
Aramco said in a statement on Sunday that the company’s results were “supported by stronger crude oil prices, higher volumes sold and improved margins for refined products.”
“Given that we expect oil and gas to remain essential for the foreseeable future, the risks of underinvestment in our industry are real, including a contribution to higher energy prices,” said Aramco President and CEO Amin Nasser.
To meet these challenges, he said, the company will not only focus on expanding oil, gas and chemicals production, but will also invest in new low-carbon technologies.
Aramco is a major emitter of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
Responding to Aramco’s announcement, Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard said: “It is appalling for a company to make more than $161 billion in profits in one year by selling fossil fuels, the single biggest driver of the climate crisis.”
“It is even more shocking because this surplus accumulated during the global cost of living crisis, helped by the high energy prices resulting from the Russian war on Ukraine,” she added.
Saudi Arabia is the largest producer in the oil cartel OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries).
But the Gulf kingdom has been condemned for a host of human rights abuses: its involvement in the conflict in neighboring Yemen, the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, the imprisonment of dissidents, and the widespread use of the death penalty.