Saudi Aramco Net Income Falls on Declining Crude Oil Volumes — Update

By Christian Moess Laursen

Saudi Arabia's national oil company first-quarter profit fell and missed analysts' forecasts due to a lower volume of crude oil sold and weaker refining and chemicals margins.

Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Aramco, said Tuesday that its net profit fell to $27.27 billion in the quarter from $31.88 billion a year prior, missing the $27.79 billion expected by nine analysts in a poll provided by Visible Alpha.

The decline came despite an increase in crude oil prices as well as lower taxes and zakat--an Islamic finance term meaning almsgiving--, Aramco said.

Oil prices have traded higher during the quarter, with Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, rising 14% amid fading hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza along fears of the war spilling over into a broader regional conflict. WTI, the U.S. oil gauge, rose 17% in the quarter.

"In the first quarter [Aramco] made significant progress on expanding our gas business and growing our globally-integrated downstream value chain," President and Chief Executive Amin H. Nasser said.

Cash flow from operations--a closely-watched metric measuring the cash a company generates from normal business operations--declined to $33.59 billion from $39.64 billion, missing a forecast of $33.94 billion, due to lower earnings and a higher working capital.

Meanwhile, earnings before interest, taxes and zakat was $54.67 billion, down from $59.08 billion.

On Monday, Aramco--the world's largest oil producer--increased its June prices for its flagship Arab Light for customers in Asia, northwest Europe and the Mediterranean--although not U.S.--in what was taken as a sign of confidence in the demand outlook.

"The June OSPs [official selling prices] show that Saudi is fully committed to its ambition of keeping the market tight and pushing oil prices higher by restricting supply," DNB Markets' senior energy analyst Helge Andre Martinsen said in a note.

Improving demand looks likely to help push oil markets into a deficit in the second and third quarter, boosting prices to a peak around $95 a barrel this summer, Bank of America said in a note last month. Brent crude oil currently sits around $83.50 a barrel.

The company, among the most valuable globally, declared a base dividend of $20.3 billion and a performance-linked dividend of $10.8 billion, both matching the fourth-quarter payout. It expects to declare total dividend payout of $124.3 billion in 2024.

First-quarter profits for global oil companies have tumbled on year. Chevron, Exxon and Shell all attributed their declines to weaker natural-gas trading, with the two U.S. companies citing lower refining margins as well.

Still, European energy majors, such as France's TotalEnergies, Italy's Eni and London-based Shell, performed better than analysts had expected as they ramped up oil-and-gas production.

Write to Christian Moess Laursen at christian.moess@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 07, 2024 02:58 ET (06:58 GMT)

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