Saudi Aramco chief foresees higher oil demand this year

Saudi Aramco’s Chief Executive expects rising oil demand in 2021, he said on Sunday, citing Chinese demand approaching pre-pandemic levels while vaccines help other economies to open up.

“We are pleased that there are signs of a recovery,” Amin Nasser told said at an earnings briefing from the Saudi oil giant. “We expect this to continue as governments and authorities around the world reopen economies.”

The company announced a full-year dividend of $75 billion and a cash flow from operating activities of $76 billion.

2021 capex expected to be around $35 billion and the progress on downstream business strategy with ongoing integration of Sabic.

Aramco’s international bond issuance in the fourth quarter achieved record demand for a 50-year tranche and was 10 times oversubscribed compared to its initial offering size.

In 2020, average hydrocarbon production was 12.4 million barrels per day of oil equivalent, including 9.2 million barrels per day (MMBPD) of crude oil.

The company displayed strong financial resilience in one of the most challenging periods for the industry and continues to assess its capital expenditure and efficiency programmes and expects capital expenditure for 2021 to be around $35 billion.

The company continued its strong track record of supply reliability, despite disruptions caused by covid-19, by delivering crude oil and other products with 99.9 per cent reliability in 2020.

Aramco declared dividend of $75 billion for the year, which reflects the outcome of the company’s strong performance.

The firm continued to make advances in cutting-edge technology and received a company record of 683 US patents in 2020.

Capital expenditure in 2020 was $27 billion due to the implementation of optimisation and efficiency programmes, representing a significant saving on capital expenditure of $33 billion in 2019.

Aramco achieves an estimated upstream carbon intensity of 10.5kg of CO2 per barrel oil equivalent in 2020.

Capital expenditure in 2020 was $27 billion due to implementation of optimization and efficiency programmes.

The firm’s estimated upstream methane intensity was 0.06 per cent and the company continues to asses its capital expenditure and efficiency programmes and expects capital expenditure for 2021 to be around $35 billion.

Aramco positioned to capitalize on developments in hydrogen, given the company’s scale, infrastructure, low costs and low upstream carbon intensity.

In January 2020, Aramco joind the hydrogen council as a steering member.

Aramco on Sunday announced its intention to cut capital expenditure after reporting a 44.4 per cent slump in 2020 net profit, hit by lower oil prices and sales as the COVID-19 pandemic depressed demand.

Saudi Arabian state oil giant Aramco said on Sunday it expects to cut capital expenditure after it reported a 44.4 per cent slump in 2020 net profit, as the coronavirus pandemic depressed demand.

The company lowered its guidance for spending to around $35 billion from a range of $40 billion to $45 billion previously, according to a disclosure to the Tadawul bourse.

Aramco declared a dividend of $75 billion for 2020 and signalled it was seeing pickup in oil demand.

“The dividend is in line with expectations, which is what holders of Aramco will care about most, but lower capex implies the company does not expect high oil prices to last for the long-term,” said Hasnain Malik, head of equity research at Tellimer.

Aramco’s shares were marginally down 0.6 per cent after the company published its results.

Through most of last year, Aramco’s shares held up well against global oil companies in emerging and developed markets, but underperformed against the company’s peers when oil prices recovered.

Analysts had expected a net profit of 186.1 billion riyals in 2020, according to the mean estimate of analysts in Refinitiv’s Eikon.

“Looking ahead, our long-term strategy to optimize our oil and gas portfolio is on track and, as the macro environment improves, we are seeing a pick-up in demand in Asia and also positive signs elsewhere,” Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser said in the statement.