Saudi Aramco first-quarter revenues fall
The state-owned company still had a profit of $16.7 billion and gave its shareholders a big payout.
Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco today announced a decrease in revenue while still turning a large profit in the first quarter of 2020.
Aramco had a net income of $16.7 billion in the first three months of 2020 and paid dividends of $18.75 billion to its shareholders. Aramco is mostly owned by the Saudi state, but 7% is listed on the Saudi stock exchange. The earnings were down 25% from the same period last year, The Associated Press reported.
Saudi Arabia flooded the global market with oil in March amid a price war with Russia, causing the cost of oil to plummet. The price war came on top of a drop in world demand for oil as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Aramco must pay dividends to the Saudi government and its private shareholders and planned to pay out $75 billion in 2020. The $18.75 billion it paid for the first quarter thus puts it theoretically on track for the yearly target, Reuters reported.
