Saudi Arabia’s national oil company Aramco has again outperformed forecasts. The world’s largest oil company, and 2nd largest listed company, reported a free cash flow of $18.3 billion in Q1 2021, a 30% increase from Q1 2020. At the same time, Aramco stated that it will maintain its dividend, with $18.8 billion due to be paid out in both the first and second quarter. The comparison with 2020 is, of course, a bit lopsided, as the oil market was suffering massive global demand destruction during that time period due to COVID and a major oil storage shortage. Aramco also reported a net income of $21.7 billion in the first three months of the year, an increase of $5.1 billion in comparison to 2020. These numbers are higher than even the most optimistic analysts had hoped for. At present, the Saudi giant is close to the same level of net […]