Saudi Aramco surpasses Apple to become world's most valuable company; here are its figures

Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Aramco has surpassed Apple Inc, to become the world’s most valuable company due to the recent surge in oil prices. According to an analysis by Refinitiv, an American-British global provider of financial market data, the soaring commodity prices, and oil price hikes have brought exorbitant profits to Aramco – which is worth $2.43 trillion now. Apple, meanwhile, has tumbled by more than 5% and is worth $2.37 trillion. 

In 2022, Saudi Aramco’s stock prices hit a spike of nearly 27% despite the global inflation, and supply chain disruptions. The rising oil prices during the COVID-19 pandemic recovery phase helped the firm secure more than double its “full-year profit” in 2021. Apple had overtaken the oil firm Saudi Aramco as the ‘world's most valuable’ company in the year 2020, but the tables have turned due to the market capitalizations that fluctuated frequently this year. 

Aramco’s net income rose by whopping 124% to $110 billion in 2021

Last year, in 2021, Aramco’s net income had risen by a whopping 124% to $110 billion, compared to $49 billion in the year 2020. As the Brent crude prices soared by roughly 67%, Aramco seemed to extract benefits from the surging global oil price hike. The oil firm’s capital expenditure this year in 2022 is estimated at $40-50 billion, implying that its growth graph will accelerate this decade. Higher crude oil prices, stronger refining and chemicals margins, and the consolidation of its chemicals business maybe some of the growth factors for the Saudi Arabian oil firm, SABIC’s full-year results show. 

“Our strong results are a testament to our financial discipline, flexibility through evolving market conditions and steadfast focus on our long-term growth strategy, which targets value growth for our shareholders,” Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said in the SABIC’s release. 

According to the company’s CEO, Aramco mostly benefitted from the surging oil prices in 2021, as the Brent crude oil hit $80 a barrel by the end of 2021. It was roughly up by over 50% during the year end, as the pandemic-related restrictions began to ease. There were supply shortages even before Russia’s war in Ukraine which is also another factor driving the energy and commodity prices high. “Although economic conditions have improved considerably, the outlook remains uncertain due to various macro-economic and geopolitical factors,” said CEO Amin Nasser. “We see healthy oil demand. Unfortunately, there is shrinking global spare capacity, combined with low inventories and a lack of investment,” he added. Aramco is also expected to increase its crude oil production capacity to 13 million barrels per day by 2027.