Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, announced its projection to declare dividends totaling $85.4 billion in 2025, marking a substantial drop from the previous year’s payouts by nearly 30% as the company grappled with weakened sales and escalating costs, punctuating its financial performance for 2024.
In 2024, Aramco disbursed approximately $124.25 billion in dividends, preceded by $97.78 billion in payments in 2023. Notably, the company’s 2024 dividend distribution comprised around $43.1 billion in performance-linked dividends, an initiative introduced in 2023 in addition to base dividends that are fixed irrespective of outcomes.
For the first quarter of 2025, Saudi Aramco disclosed $200 million in performance-linked dividends, reflecting a significant decrease compared to the nearly $10.8 billion allocated for each quarter in 2024.
Despite reporting a net profit of $106.2 billion in 2024, down from $121.3 billion in 2023, Aramco faced profit constraints due to diminished oil prices driven by heightened global crude production and subdued demand. The average price of Brent crude futures stood at $80 per barrel in 2024, $2 lower than the previous year, as reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
In terms of revenue, Aramco experienced a decrease to $436.6 billion in 2024 from $440.8 billion in the preceding year.
Meanwhile, OPEC+ decided during a virtual meeting on Monday to move forward with an oil output increase slated for April, despite renewed calls from U.S. President Donald Trump for the group and its dominant member, Saudi Arabia, to curb prices. This comes as part of their broader strategy to navigate market stability.
The organization confirmed that the additional production would amount to 138,000 barrels per day, according to the report from Reuters. They acknowledged the need for flexibility, indicating that the increase could be halted or reversed depending on evolving market dynamics.
