Aramco almost doubles 1Q profit on higher oil prices

Aramco almost doubles 1Q profit on higher oil prices

Dubai, 15 May (Argus) — State-controlled Saudi Aramco's profit for the first quarter of the year almost doubled compared with a year earlier to $39.5bn, buoyed by the sharp hike in oil prices since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

The 82pc year-on-year jump in profit represents the company's strongest quarterly earnings since it sold 1.5pc of its shares in a partial listing on Saudi Arabia's domestic Tadawul stock exchange in late 2019, Aramco said Sunday. Besides higher oil prices, the firm attributed the growth in profit to "higher volumes sold, as well as much improved downstream margins".

Aramco said it produced 13mn b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d) in the first quarter, but it did not disclose how much of that was crude. Argus estimates that the company produced 10.14mn b/d of crude in the first three months of the year, 7pc higher than the 9.2mn b/d it said it produced over the whole of last year. The rise is in line with the roadmap set out by Opec and its non-Opec partners to unwind their collective production cut by the end of this year.

Aramco generated $30.6bn of free cash flow in January-March, up by 67pc up on the $18.3bn it delivered