DUBAI — Saudi Arabian oil company Aramco reported a 22 per cent drop in second-quarter profit on Tuesday, and the world’s top oil exporter said it was cutting costs and looking to divest assets as crude prices drop and its debt mounts.
The firm’s generous dividends, a key source of funding for ambitious plans to cut the kingdom’s reliance on oil, will be about a third lower this year.
Aramco reported its 10th decline in quarterly net profit to US$22.7 billion in the quarter through June, from US$29.1 billion a year earlier.
Aramco’s shares were up 0.3 per cent at 23.98 riyals. They have dropped about 14.5 per cent this year, trailing industry peers.
Adjusted net income fell 13.7 per cent to US$24.5 billion, above a company-provided median analyst estimate of US$23.7 billion.
“What we’re looking at across the portfolio is to unlock capital that is currently locked into low - relatively low-return (assets) ... invest it in our core investment, which are high return,” CFO Ziad Al-Murshed told reporters.
He declined to name the assets, but said: “it is your typical low-return that is tied in things like infrastructure.”
Reuters reported last month that Aramco was close to a deal to raise US$10 billion from a group led by BlackRock, and is considering selling up to five gas-powered power plants to raise up to US$4 billion.
Total borrowing rose to US$92.9 billion at June 30 from US$74.4 a year prior. Gearing, a measure of indebtedness, rose to 6.5 per cent from minus 0.3 per cent a year earlier and 5.3 per cent the previous quarter.
Aramco is looking at different geographies, currencies and instruments for debt issuance, Al-Murshed said.
The company, long a reliable source of revenue for the Saudi state, confirmed a previously outlined US$21.3 billion in total dividends for the second quarter, about US$200 million of which is performance-linked dividends.
Dividends sink
Aramco in March outlined total dividends of US$85.4 billion for 2025 - a 31 per cent drop from more than US$124 billion the previous year. The performance-linked component is set to plunge 98 per cent from 2024 to US$900 million as free cash flow dwindles.
Free cash flow dropped nearly a fifth year-on-year in the second quarter to US$15.2 billion.
For the Saudi government, which owns 81.5 per cent of Aramco shares directly and another 16 per cent through its sovereign wealth fund PIF, dividends are a critical source of income, particularly as it invests to diversify the economy away from oil.
Oil generated 62 per cent of the government’s revenue last year, and the International Monetary fund estimates the kingdom needs oil prices at more than US$90 a barrel to balance its 2025 budget.
Aramco’s average realized crude oil price was US$66.7 a barrel in the quarter, down from US$76.3 in the first quarter and US$85.7 in the second quarter of 2024.
“We’ve penciled in for Saudi Arabia to run a budget deficit of 5.0 per cent of GDP this year,” said James Swanston, senior economist at Capital Economics, adding the government would likely overshoot its annual borrowing plan.
That would be more than double the 2.3 per cent deficit, or about US$27 billion, the kingdom projected in November for the 2025 budget.
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Reporting by Yousef Saba and Luke Tyson in Dubai; Editing by Mark Potter and Bernadette Baum
