Aramco pays nearly $100bn in dividends as profits tumble

Aramco pays nearly $100bn in dividends as profits tumble

Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco has paid out dividends of nearly $100bn (£77bn), despite the company’s annual profits tumbling from the record earnings raked in the year before.The group, in which the Saudi government owns a 82% stake, said in its annual accounts that dividends to shareholders increased by 30% to $97.8bn in 2023.Overall profits fell by just under 25% to $121.3bn, owing to a drop in oil prices and lower sales when compared to the previous 12 months.Despite this fall, the profit figure was the second highest ever reported by Saudi Aramco after its record $161.1bn in 2022, the largest profit ever recorded by an oil or gas firm. The 2022 bumper results were largely driven by escalating oil prices as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 which affected global supply.The price of Brent crude, the benchmark oil price, fell from as high as nearly $120 a barrel in the middle of 2022 to as low as $67 a barrel last year. It is now trading at about $82, despite fears that tensions in the Middle East could push crude prices above $100 a barrel.The dividend payout is likely to anger campaigners who