Saudi Aramco saw its Q1 2023 net profit decline by 19% year-on-year.
It might appear counter-intuitive to characterise Saudi Aramco’s first quarter net income of SAR119.54 billion as bad but, in the context of what the company is, it is. It is not so much the 19 percent drop in net income that will be troubling to savvy oil market watchers. Some of that can be explained by the drop in oil prices over the quarter.
Additionally concerning then, and now, are Saudi Arabia’s equally fantastical claims about its oil reserves. Specifically, at the beginning of 1989, the country claimed proven oil reserves of 170 billion barrels. Just one year later, and without the discovery of any major new oil fields, it claimed proven oil reserves of 257 billion barrels, an increase of 51.2 percent.