The lower oil price and the pandemic are also leaving their mark on the Saudi Arabian industry leader. The planned investments will be drastically cut.
The profit of the state-owned Saudi oil company Saudi Aramco fell 44 percent last year due to lower crude oil prices and lower sales. The industry giant reported an annual profit of 49 billion dollars (41 billion euros) on Sunday – that’s a decrease of 39 billion dollars compared to the previous year.
The president and chairman of the group, Amin Nassir, spoke of “one of the most challenging years in recent history“. The corona pandemic had an enormous impact on the entire global economy. However, the company’s profit had already shrunk by 20 percent in 2019 and thus before the Corona crisis.
Nevertheless, the management of the oil company looks to the future with confidence. “As the macroeconomic environment improves, we see a pickup in demand in Asia and positive signs in other countries,” said Nassir.
Because of the price war in the oil market, the company had also cut its investments last year. While in 2019 $ 33 billion was invested, it was only $ 27 billion in 2020. For the current year, spending is expected to be around $ 35 billion – the original forecast was $ 40 to 45 billion.