Aramco has increased its profits significantly

The oil company Saudi Aramco has increased its profits significantly in the wake of the global economic recovery and rising oil prices. The Saudi industry giant reported a surplus of $ 25.5 billion for the second quarter of 2021. That is almost four times the level of the previous year: In the second quarter of 2020, the group had a profit of just 6.6 billion US dollars. For the first half of the year, Aramco reports a surplus of 47.2 billion US dollars - an increase of 103 percent compared to the same period last year (around 23.2 billion). Most recently, profit in the first half of 2019 was in this range ($ 46.9 billion). Crude oil has become around 40 percent more expensive this year. Prices and demand have recovered, the group justified the profit increase. The vaccination campaigns and the relaxation of the corona regulations also contributed to this. Competitors Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil have also benefited significantly from the recovery of the global economy after the corona freeze. "Our results for the second quarter reflect a strong recovery in global energy demand," said CEO Amin Nasser on the occasion of the presentation of the figures. For 2021 and beyond, he was confident: "We are going into the second half of 2021 more resiliently and flexibly, while the recovery of the global economy gains momentum." "Even though there is still some uncertainty about the challenges posed by the Covid-19 variants, we have shown that we can adapt quickly and effectively to changing market conditions." In the past two weeks, oil companies like BP, Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell had announced plans to increase share buybacks and distributions, confident that the worst of the pandemic was over. Because of the price war in the oil market, Aramco had reported an annual profit of 49 billion US dollars in 2020. The Saudi oil giant also shut down its investments, spending just $ 27 billion. For the current year, the investments are now expected to amount to around 35 billion dollars - originally, however, 40 to 45 billion dollars were forecast.