Saudi Aramco’s profits fell by nearly 50% in 2020 as the pandemic battered oil markets and an oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia sent oil prices to record lows. Not even the world’s largest oil company could escape the devastation, although it did manage to remain profitable unlike many of its competitors. For Saudi Arabia, a country whose entire economy is virtually monopolized by the state-owned oil company, Aramco’s 44.4% drop in profits meant a whopping 30.7% decline in oil revenues for the Saudi government. Despite the sharp downturn, Saudi Aramco has continued to pay steady dividends to its shareholders. A portion of Aramco first went public in December of 2019 in what was the single biggest initial public offering in history. The vast majority of shares are owned by the national government, meaning that the oil company, as opposed to the Saudi State treasury, has taken […]