In 2020, the company’s net profit dropped by 44.4 percent to $49 billion, according to a statement released on Sunday. After been dealt such a serious blow, Saudi Aramco agreed to spend less this year than it had planned: Aramco said it expected to spend around $35 billion on capital expenditures in 2021, down from an earlier forecast of $40 billion to $45 billion. Despite this, the oil firm is optimistic about the future: It kept its $75 billion dividend for the year, and by the end of 2021, it expects to be back to pre-pandemic oil production levels. On a conference call with reporters, Saudi Aramco president and CEO Amin Nasser expressed his optimism for 2021, predicting that the company will achieve close to 99 million barrels per day by the end of the year. He stated that this forecast is based on the opinions of various worldwide companies and agencies, and that demand will rise in 2022. “Vaccine deployment will significantly improve the situation,” he continued. Continue reading The earnings decline is due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on global energy markets. “As Covid-19’s massive impact reverberated throughout the global economy, we increased our focus on capital and operational savings,” Nasser added. The earnings report comes as Saudi Aramco refineries have been targeted by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels with drone attacks. “Despite Covid-19 and these attacks on various portions of our plants in the north and south, as well as at Ras Tanura recently,” Nasser remarked, “our reliability in 2020 is 99.9%.” “It’s higher than it’s been in past years.” “It’s just another example of our well-thought-out crisis management and continuity preparations.” John Defterios of CNN contributed to this article. Continue reading
