RIYADH: Oil firm Saudi Aramco on Monday announced profits of $30.08 billion for the second quarter, a sharp fall from the same period last year when prices surged after Russia invaded Ukraine.

The 38 percent year-on-year decline “mainly reflected the impact of lower crude oil prices and weakening refining and chemicals margins,” the largely state-owned company said in a statement published on the Saudi stock exchange.

The decline followed a drop of 19.25 percent in the first quarter.

“Our strong results reflect our resilience and ability to adapt through market cycles,” CEO Amin Nasser said.

Saudi Aramco reports 46% jump in profits for 2022

“We continue to demonstrate our long-standing ability to meet the needs of customers around the world with high levels of reliability. For our shareholders, we intend to start distributing our first performance-linked dividend in the third quarter.”

Production from the world’s biggest crude exporter was down after Riyadh in April announced cuts of 500,000 barrels per day, part of a coordinated move with other oil powers to slash supply by more than one million bpd in a bid to prop up prices.

In June, the Saudi energy ministry announced a further voluntary cut of one million bpd which took effect in July and has been extended through September.

The kingdom’s daily production is now approximately nine million bpd, far below its reported daily capacity of 12 million bpd.