Saudi Aramco disclosed on Sunday its financial results for 2019, recording a net profit of $88.2 billion (SAR330.7bn). This is despite low oil prices and challenging margins in the refining and petrochemical industries.
Net income was $88.2 billion for the full-year 2019, compared to $111.1 billion in 2018. The decrease was primarily due to lower crude oil prices and production volumes. Besides, declining refining and chemical margins, the financial statement said.
Saudi Aramco is to pay $75bn in dividends in 2020.
Preserving its spot as one of the world's largest oil producers; Aramco said it had total hydrocarbon production of 13.2 million bpd of oil equivalent in 2019.
It had reserves of 258.6 billion barrels of oil equivalent in 2019, compared to 256.9 billion boe in the previous year.
Aramco expects capital spending in 2020 to be between $25bn and $30bn, comparing to $32.8 billion in 2019.
"2019 was an exceptional year for Saudi Aramco. Through a variety of circumstances — some planned and some not — the world got unprecedented insight into our agility and resilience," Aramco President and CEO Amin Nasser said.
"Our unique scale, low costs, and resilience came together to deliver both growth and world-leading returns, while also maintaining our position as one of the world's most reliable energy companies," he added.
"As the world deals with the difficult and dual challenge of satisfying demand for more energy alongside responding to the rising desire for cleaner energy, I believe we are well positioned given our oil production is among the least carbon intensive in the world."
In December 2019, Saudi Aramco completed the world's largest initial public offering. This followed a $12 billion inaugural international bond issuance in April 2019.
Saudi Aramco continued to maintain a position of strong safety with respect to occupational and process safety performance. It achieved so by continuing to emphasize operational discipline, visible commitment to safety, and innovative safety technologies.
Saudi Aramco improved its environmental performance of its upstream operations; reducing carbon intensity to an estimated 10.1 kg of C02e/boe in 2019 compared to 10.2 kg of C02e/boe the previous year.
In addition, the Company is in the process of planting one million trees across the Kingdom. It has also launched a mangrove project with more than two million mangrove seedlings planted.
