China News Service, March 22. According to the "Central News Agency" report, on the 21st local time, the world's largest crude oil exporter Saudi Aramco announced its 2020 financial report showing that due to the new crown pneumonia epidemic, global crude oil demand has been greatly affected. Profits dropped sharply by 44.4% from the previous year.
Saudi Aramco stated in a statement that the company's annual profit fell from US$88.2 billion in 2019 to US$49 billion in 2020.
The company said in a statement that “revenues have been affected by the decline in crude oil prices and sales, as well as shrinking profits from refining and petrochemical products.”
However, Saudi Aramco said: “During one of the most difficult times in the industry, we still demonstrate strong financial resilience.” Saudi Aramco President and CEO Amin Nasser said that because of the focus on capital and operational efficiency, the company’s financial The situation remains sound.
In 2020, Saudi Aramco announced a dividend of 75 billion U.S. dollars to shareholders.
According to the report, although crude oil prices have rebounded to more than US$60 per barrel in recent weeks, analysts warned that Saudi Aramco needs to prepare for a possible new wave of epidemics because the unstable global economic recovery will be hit. This further weakened the global demand for crude oil.