Saudi Aramco reported its annual profit of $161 billion... which is the largest profit of all time for a public company.
👉 Background: Saudi Aramco is the petrol and natural gas company based in Saudi Arabia. It is the largest oil producer in the world. Fun fact: The Saudi government owns more than 98% of Aramco’s shares.
👉 What happened: Saudi Aramco has reported an annual profit of $161 billion USD for 2022 - that’s around $450m USD in profit PER DAY of 2022. That means Saudi Aramco could acquire the whole of NAB, Westpac and ANZ with just one year of their profits.
👉 What else: The monster profits come off the Russia/Ukraine war. The Western world has reduced its reliance on Russian oil and natural gas as a sanction. So the demand for Saudi Aramco’s oil and gas skyrocketed. And these chunky chunky profits will go back into the government coffers to pivot away from their reliance on oil for government revenue.
💡 Many countries rely on natural resources for economic prosperity. But, at some point in the future, these natural resources will run out.
💡 For example, it’s believed that Saudi Arabia has oil reserves for only the next 70 years. So in the meantime, the Saudi prince has launched the Saudi Vision - a $500 billion USD project to pivot Saudi Arabia’s economy in the post-oil era. Think: solar and wind-powered cities, outdoor skiing mountains in the desert and flying cars.
💡 Australia faces similar challenges to pivot away from natural resources. In fact, for many of these resources, Australia only 15-30 years worth of reserves, according to a Geoscience Australia report from 2022.
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