Oil giant Saudi Aramco’s second-quarter profit dips 3% on lower crude production volumes

Saudi state oil giant Aramco reported $29.1 billion in net profit for the second quarter, a dip of just over 3% from the same period last year as crude production volumes remained low.

Net income from the first half of the financial year was $56.3 billion, down from $62 billion during the same period last year. The firm also posted free cash flow for the second quarter of$19 billion compared to $23.2 billion one year prior.

Aramco reaffirmed its second-quarter base dividend of $20.3 billion, and declared a performance-linked dividend of $10.8 billion to be paid in the third quarter. The largest oil company in the world expects to declare total dividends of $124.2 billion in 2024, its earnings release said.

“We have delivered market-leading performance once again, with strong earnings and cash flows in the first half of the year,” Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said in the company’s press statement.

“Leveraging these strong earnings, we continued to deliver a base dividend that is sustainable and progressive, and a performance-linked dividend that shares the upside with our shareholders.”

Aramco’s stock price was trading 1.31% higher just after the opening of the Tadawul, the Saudi stock exchange, at 10:20 a.m. local time.

Many forecasters expected the oil company’s revenue to be largely flat. Analysts at Riyadh-based brokerage firm Al Rajhi Capital wrote in a July 22 report that they “anticipate Saudi Aramco’s Q2 2024 revenue to be almost flat year-on-year, owing to lower production volumes almost offset by higher Brent prices compared to Q2 2023.”

Lasting production cuts

Saudi Arabia delivered an output of 8.99 million barrels per day in the second quarter, according to a July OPEC report citing secondary sources.

The kingdom’s gross domestic product growth has contracted for four consecutive quarters, which economists say is largely due to the oil production cuts. The overall decline in the second quarter was led by an 8.5% drop in Saudi Arabia’s oil sector, the country’s General Authority for Statistics reported.

In early June, OPEC+, the alliance of OPEC and non-OPEC producers, agreed to extend their joint oil output cuts into 2025 in an effort to prop up prices amid lackluster demand growth. The supply cuts have been in place for nearly two years.

Despite this, international benchmark Brent Crude in the last month slid from trading in the mid $80-range to the mid-$70 range, both of which are lower than what several OPEC member states require to keep their budgets balanced. Saudi Arabia needs Brent at $96 per barrel to balance its budget, according to estimates from the International Monetary Fund.