In its first-ever half-year earnings report, Saudi Aramco said the company had earned a net income of $46.9 billion in the first half of 2019, a 12 percent decrease from $53 billion in the period a year earlier, when oil prices were higher.
Saudi Aramco partly attributed the decline in net income to a 4% fall in the average realized price of crude oil, compared to the same period in 2018, from $69 to $66 per barrel.
Amin Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco.
Aramco’s earnings are still significantly higher than Apple Inc, the world’s most profitable listed company, which made $31.5 billion in the first six months of its financial year, according to CNBC. Aramco President and CEO Amin Nasser said the company had continued to deliver on its “downstream growth strategy” through acquisitions both domestically and in international markets.
Meanwhile, Saudi Aramco also announced that it would acquire a 20% stake in the oil and chemicals business of India’s Reliance Industries, one of the largest ever foreign investments into India.
“Now we have transformed our longstanding relationship of two decades, based on mutual trust, into a partnership of growth potential for many years to come,” said Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries and Asia’s richest man. As part of the agreement, Saudi Aramco will provide Reliance’s refinery business with about 500,000 barrels of oil a day. Reliance said terms of the deal have yet to be finalized and it is subject to regulatory approval, according to the Financial Times.
