Saudi Arabian Oil Co., doing business as Saudi Aramco, has encountered a significant year-over-year decline in its overall earnings for the full year 2024, reflecting the adverse impacts of lower oil prices and reduced sales volumes. For the fiscal year ending December 31, 2024, the oil giant's revenue plummeted to 1.637 trillion Saudi riyals, down from 1.653 trillion riyals reported in the previous year.
This downturn in revenue has been primarily driven by decreasing crude oil prices and sales volumes, accompanied by lower prices for refined products and chemicals, as detailed in a recent earnings release. The company recorded a net profit decrease of 12.4% during this period, falling to 398.42 billion riyals, largely attributable to lower revenue and diminished sales-related income, concurrently with rising operational costs.
Furthermore, operational profit saw a decline, dropping to 774.63 billion riyals compared to 868.29 billion riyals from the preceding year. Amin Nasser, the President and Chief Executive of Aramco, commented, "Global oil demand reached new highs in 2024, and we expect further growth in 2025. With dependable and more sustainable energy being critical to global economic growth, we continue to advance our projects aimed at maintaining our maximum sustainable crude oil capacity, enhancing our gas capabilities, and achieving greater integration of our Upstream and Downstream operations to extract additional value while assisting in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions." In addition, the board has announced a base dividend of 0.3278 riyal per share for the fourth quarter of 2024, marking an increase from the previous year's figure of 0.3145 riyal per share.
A performance-linked dividend of 0.0034 riyal per share for 2024 has also been declared, a notable decrease from the 0.1670 riyal per share distributed in 2023. RBC Capital Markets has indicated that Saudi Aramco has produced a generally in-line set of results for 2024, projecting total dividends disbursed in 2025 to amount to $85.4 billion, contrasting sharply with $124.3 billion paid out in 2024.
RBC's forecast for total dividends in 2025 stands at $84.4 billion, while the Visible Alpha consensus estimates it at $89.3 billion. Analysts observed, "As anticipated and consistent with broader market trends, shareholder distributions are anticipated to decrease in 2025, as commodity markets revert to more normalized levels, with Aramco's balance sheet beginning to reconfigure, albeit from a low baseline (4.5% by year-end 2024 compared to -6.3% at year-end 2023).
Looking forward, the company has laid out a strategic roadmap for growth across both the oil and gas sectors, as well as its downstream business, which is expected to drive additional cash flow generation leading up to 2030." As of early Tuesday afternoon, shares were observed trading at a 2% decline on the Saudi Exchange..