Status: 03/12/2023 4:28 p.m
Aramco is one of the most valuable companies in the world. For 2022, the Saudi Arabian oil company reports a record profit. This is mainly due to high commodity prices as a result of the Russian attack on Ukraine.
The Saudi Arabian oil company Aramco has posted a record profit for 2022. The surplus is around 161 billion US dollars (about 151 billion euros). According to the group, the plus is due to the high oil prices and increased demand. After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, energy prices around the world had skyrocketed.
The profit is the highest the mostly state-owned group has posted since its IPO in late 2019. This is an increase of about 46 percent compared to the profit of about 110 billion US dollars in 2021.
Oil companies benefit from the current economic situation
Aramco is in the top three most valuable companies in the world. Like many of its competitors, the Saudi Arabian oil company is benefiting from the currently high energy prices. Shell, Totalenergies, Eni and the US oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron had also recently reported strong profit jumps.
Aramco’s profits are also reflected in the country’s economic balance sheet: according to official figures, Saudi Arabia achieved economic growth of 8.7 percent in 2022 compared to the same period last year. This is the highest value in the group of leading industrialized and emerging countries (G20).
Saudi Arabia leads the OPEC group of petroleum exporting countries. Together with other countries – especially Russia – they form the OPEC+. In October last year, the merger agreed on a significant reduction in production in November, which led to diplomatic turmoil with the USA. There were allegations that Saudi Arabia was taking sides in favor of Russia. It was then assured that the decision had been made “purely for economic reasons”.
Activists are outraged
The human rights organization Amnesty International was appalled by the oil company’s earnings report. “It’s staggering that in a single year a company can make more than $161 billion in profit from the sale of fossil fuels – the biggest driver of climate change,” said the organization’s secretary-general, Agnès Callamard. Callamard pointed out that the surplus is particularly shocking because it came during a global crisis of rising living costs and rising energy prices.
