Aramco aims to maintain increasing dividends over next years: Exec

Ziad Al-Murshed, Acting Service Line Head of Finance, Strategy and Development at Saudi Aramco

Ziad Al-Murshed, Acting Service Line Head of Finance, Strategy and Development at Saudi Aramco, said the company seeks to maintain increasing dividends over the next years, to be in line with its future prospects and growth in free cash flows.
 

Commenting on the oil giant’s 2021 results, Al-Murshed said the decline in energy markets is ruled out currently. “However, we should not forget that the industry has cycles with price fluctuations. Thus, we need to strengthen our financial position to overcome any challenges, as was the case in 2020.”
 

Further, the top official said 2021 net income is the highest globally and second largest historically at the level of the company, as it is $1 billion higher than 2018 figures.
 

“As a result of this strong financial performance and robust free cash flows, the company's entire dividends of $75 billion were covered in 2021,” Al-Murshed said, adding that the debt ratio was reduced to 14% at the end of 2021, compared to 23% at the beginning of the year.