On August 7, local time, oil giant Saudi Aramco announced its second-quarter results and announced that it would pay a dividend of nearly $20 billion.。

As of June 2023, Saudi Aramco's net profit was 113 billion riyals ($30 billion), down 38% from $48.4 billion in the same period last year.。Saudi Aramco said lower crude oil prices and lower refining and chemicals margins were responsible for its performance decline.。

Last year the company benefited from rising global energy costs, achieving its highest profit ever at $161 billion.。The three-month average for April-June last year was $114 a barrel, compared with $78 this year.。

The Saudi government is Saudi Aramco's largest shareholder。It is reported that the Saudi government directly holds more than 90% of the company's shares, while the Sovereign Public Investment Fund (Public Investment Fund) and its subsidiary Sanabil also hold 8% of the company's shares.。Currently, the company has a market capitalization of over 2.$1 trillion, second only to Apple and Microsoft。In the recent Fortune Global 500 list, Saudi Aramco ranked second。

Saudi Aramco's dividend to shareholders has not fallen despite shrinking profits。The company said it would pay out as much as $19.5 billion in dividends to shareholders in the second quarter, up from $18.8 billion a year earlier.。And in the first quarter of this year, the company had already claimed to pay $19.5 billion in dividends, meaning that it announced a total of $39 billion in dividends in the first half of this year, up from $37.5 billion in the same period last year.。

Saudi Aramco said it would begin paying a performance-based dividend starting in the third quarter, a move that would last six quarters and initially pay a dividend of 98..700 million dollars。The company called its dividend payments "sustainable and gradual."。

Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said on Monday: "Our strong results reflect our resilience and ability to adapt to market cycles.。We continue to demonstrate our long-standing ability to meet customer needs around the world with high reliability。"

But Saudi Aramco isn't the only energy giant to raise its dividend amid falling profits, with similar moves by Shell and BP, Europe's biggest oil companies.。Since February 2022, energy prices have soared and several of the world's oil majors have recorded record profits, but now their revenues have been reduced by falling energy costs.。

In addition to the dividend increase, Saudi Aramco also reaffirmed its massive capital spending plan.。Saudi Aramco is expected to spend between $45 billion and $55 billion this year, double Shell's planned capital spending.。Nasser said on a conference call that while the market is currently well supplied, there is still a need for sustainable investment.。

Nasser expects global oil demand to average 1 in the third quarter of 2023..04 billion barrels per day, an increase of 2.4 million barrels per day over the same period last year, which was mainly driven by China's demand growth。He believes that China will contribute at least half of the growth in global oil demand this year.。

"China is an important market for us, not only in terms of crude oil production, but also in terms of chemical growth.。"We are currently evaluating a number of investments in China and we will announce them in due course."。"

At the end of March, Saudi Aramco bought a 10% stake in Chinese listed Rongsheng Petrochemical for 24.6 billion yuan ($3.6 billion), a deal that will allow Saudi Aramco to supply 480,000 bpd of crude oil to China's largest refining and chemical complex and significantly expand its related business in China's downstream sector。

In addition, in the same month, Saudi Aramco also announced the establishment of a joint venture in China, Huajin Aramco Petrochemical Co.。Saudi Aramco holds a 30% stake in the joint venture and will supply up to 210,000 bpd of crude oil to the joint plant.。

And supporting Saudi Aramco's large dividend payments and outward investments is its optimistic outlook for the oil market。

Oil prices have fallen this year, to $70 a barrel.。But recently there have been signs of recovery and oil prices have begun to gradually move higher.。Today, WTI crude oil closed at 80.759, down 1.74%。

Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial, said there was nothing wrong with Saudi Aramco predicting resilience in the oil market going forward.。

He said: "As central banks complete their respective rate hikes, coupled with a weaker dollar, the global economic backdrop is expected to provide significantly more resilient support for oil prices.。He added: "Oil prices have started to rise steadily as supplies tighten and are expected to move higher towards the end of the year as momentum and the global economy continue to recover."。As OPEC + de facto head, Saudi Arabia has said it will continue to adjust output to stabilize prices, but it's clear they want to push prices to $90 a barrel.。"