Saudi Aramco profit rises a third despite attacks on oil sites
Higher crude prices and a joint venture stake sale lifted third-quarter earnings, with France 24 putting net profit at $36.25bn as attacks disrupted exports.
Saudi Aramco's net profit for the third quarter rose by about a third, the reports of the results said on Tuesday, as higher oil prices outweighed disruption from attacks on the state oil company's facilities.
France 24 put quarterly net profit at $36.25bn, a 34% increase. Euronews reported a 35% rise. Reuters said profit rose by a third. None of the accounts gave the profit booked in the same quarter a year earlier, so the base the increase is measured against was not stated in the reports.
Euronews said higher oil prices and the sale of a stake in a joint venture lifted earnings. France 24 said elevated oil prices offset the supply disruption caused by the Iran war.
The attacks reached the company itself. France 24 reported that Aramco's infrastructure and even its headquarters were targeted by Houthi rebels. Euronews said disrupted exports and the prolonged conflict weighed on the kingdom's economy, even as the oil producer's earnings climbed.
Aramco is Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company. France 24 described it as the kingdom's state-owned oil giant; Euronews called it the Saudi giant.
Other outlets carried the numbers without the same framing. Ahram Online attributed the gain to higher oil prices despite disruption from attacks. Hindustan Times headlined its report "Besieged by war, Saudi Aramco continues to gush profits", setting the quarter's earnings against the fighting around the company's operations.
The results cover a quarter in which Aramco's exports were being disrupted while crude prices stayed high, a combination that determines what the company earns and what buyers outside the Gulf pay.
Aramco did not publish a statement in the accounts carried by the five outlets, and no executive was quoted in them on the attacks, the Iran war or the joint venture sale.
How the reports differ
Reuters reported only that profit rose by a third and carried no figure for the quarter. Euronews put the increase at 35% and pointed to a joint venture sale alongside higher oil prices, a cause the others did not name. France 24 gave the most precise account, $36.25bn and 34%, and was alone in saying Houthi rebels had targeted Aramco's infrastructure and headquarters, and in tying the quarter's supply disruption to the Iran war. Hindustan Times led on the contrast between war and profit, under the phrase "besieged by war", while Ahram Online attributed the gain to higher oil prices and described the attacks only as disruption.
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