Saudi Aramco’s record 2022 profits primes oil giant for more

Saudi Aramco’s record 2022 profits primes oil giant for more

Saudi Aramco — the world’s second most valuable company — recorded the highest yearly profit ever obtained by an oil and gas firm in 2022. The state-owned company reported net income of $161.1 billion last year, a 46.5 per cent increase. Rising oil and gas prices enhanced refined product margins, and Aramco’s large sales volume contributed to that significant profit. In fact, the 2022 net profit is nearly equal to the total profit numbers put out by the world’s top five private-sector oil companies for the same year. Aramco benefits from the fact that Saudi Arabia holds the world’s second-largest oil reserves, after Venezuela. Because of the country’s geology, the cost of drilling for oil is substantially cheaper than elsewhere, helping to boost profits. The price for Brent crude, the international standard, increased by nearly 57 per cent to more than $100 per barrel at the start of 2022, and which was mirrored in the increase in Aramco revenues. Last year, several reasons contributed to rising oil prices, including geopolitical concerns that resulted in tighter access for Moscow’s supply, particularly seaborne crude and oil products, and a surge in energy consumption as most of the global economy recovered from the