Aramco boosts 2023 dividends 30% with second-highest profit on record

Aramco boosts 2023 dividends 30% with second-highest profit on record

Image credit: Getty Images Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Aramco said on Sunday it boosted its dividends last year despite net profit falling 24.7 per cent to $121.3bn on lower oil prices and volumes. Aramco’s strong numbers The profit was still the company’s second-highest on record, it said, following a record $161.1bn in 2022. Aramco boosted total dividends for the year by 30 per cent to $97.8bn. Aramco declared a base dividend, paid regardless of results, of $20.3bn for the fourth quarter. Aramco expects to pay out $43.1bn in performance-linked dividends this year, including $10.8bn to be paid out in the first quarter. The base dividend was increased 4 per cent from the previous quarter, and the performance-linked dividend was about 9 per cent higher. The company said capital investments were at $49.7bn in 2023, up from $38.8bn in 2022. It forecast capital investments between $48bn and $58bn this year, growing until the middle of the decade. That range is wide because for external investments, “there’s an element of timing that we don’t fully control,” chief financial officer Ziad Al-Murshed said on a media call. Oil supply The Saudi government in late January ordered Aramco to scrap