The state-run Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) announced on Sunday that it recorded a 90 percent year-on-year increase in its net income in the second quarter of 2022, amounting to a record-high profit of $48.4 billion, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

Relaying the development on August 14, the state-run SPA wrote:

Aramco achieved a record quarterly and half-year net income of $48.4 billion in the second quarter and $87.9 billion in the first half of 2022, compared to $25.5 billion and $47.2 billion, respectively, for the same periods in 2021. The increase in both periods was primarily driven by higher crude oil prices and volumes sold, as well as strong refining margins during the second quarter and higher downstream margins in the first half of 2022.

“The ‘crown jewel’ and leading source of income for the conservative kingdom temporarily supplanted Apple as the world’s most valuable company in March. It now lies second in the list,” Agence France-Press (AFP) observed on Sunday of Aramco following its record earnings from April to June.

Aramco’s profits for the second quarter of 2022 ($48.4 billion) were higher than those of Apple Inc. ($19.4 billion), Alphabet Inc. ($16 billion), and Facebook (6.7 billion) combined.

As noted by AFP on August 14, the U.S.-based technology giant Apple currently ranks as the world’s most valuable company, followed by Aramco. Alphabet (an American technology conglomerate known as Google’s parent company) and Facebook (an American social media service owned by the parent company Meta Platforms Inc.), both regularly jockey for the top spots among the ten most valuable companies worldwide.

Fuel trucks line up in front of storage tanks at the North Jiddah bulk plant, an Aramco oil facility, in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, on March 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

Aramco President and CEO Amin H. Nasser issued a statement on August 14 addressing his company’s record-high income over the past few months.

SPA quoted him as saying the following:

While global market volatility and economic uncertainty remain, events during the first half of this year support our view that ongoing investment in our industry is essential — both to help ensure markets remain well supplied and to facilitate an orderly energy transition. In fact, we expect oil demand to continue to grow for the rest of the decade, despite downward economic pressures on short-term global forecasts.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) issued an “Oil Market Report” on August 7 in which it predicted that global demand for oil would reach higher levels this year than previously estimated.

“Soaring oil use for power generation and gas-to-oil switching are boosting demand. In this Report, we have raised our estimates for 2022 global demand growth by 380 kb/d [thousand barrels per day], to 2.1 mb/d [million barrels per day],” the IEA stated.

“[N]atural gas and electricity prices have soared to new records, incentivising gas-to-oil switching in some countries,” according to the analysis.

“With several regions experiencing blazing heatwaves, the latest data confirm increased oil burn in power generation, especially in Europe and the Middle East but also across Asia. Fuel switching is also taking place in European industry, including refining,” the IEA observed.