Saudi oil giant Aramco announces first-quarter profits of $26 billion, down 4.6% from a year earlier
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil giant Aramco posted first-quarter profits of $26 billion on Sunday, down 4.6% from the prior year.
Aramco, formally known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., had revenues of $108.1 billion over the quarter, the company reported in a filing on Riyadh's Tadawul stock exchange. The company saw $107.2 billion in revenues and profits of $27.2 billion the same quarter last year.
Aramco's stock traded over $6 a share Thursday, down from a high of around $8 last year. It has dropped over the past year as oil prices have dipped, and in recent months, as the OPEC+ oil cartel announced restoring production more rapidly and as uncertainty driven by U.S. tariffs has rippled through Middle Eastern markets.
Benchmark Brent crude traded Friday at over $63 a barrel, down from highs of over $80 in the last year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
National Post
5 hours ago
- National Post
U.S. orders nonessential staffers, families to leave its Mideast embassies as tensions rise
WASHINGTON — The United States is reducing the presence of staffers who are not deemed essential to operations in the Middle East and their loved ones due to the potential for regional unrest, the State Department and military said Wednesday. Article content The State Department said it has ordered the departure of all nonessential personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad based on its latest review and a commitment 'to keeping Americans safe, both at home and abroad.' The embassy already had been on limited staffing, and the order will not affect a large number of personnel. Article content Article content The department, however, also is authorizing the departure of nonessential personnel and family members from Bahrain and Kuwait. That gives them the option of leaving those countries at government expense and with government assistance. Article content Article content Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth 'has authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations' across the region, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. The command 'is monitoring the developing tension in the Middle East.' Article content Speaking at the Kennedy Center in Washington on Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump said, 'They are being moved out, because it could be a dangerous place, and we'll see what happens. We've given notice to move out, and we'll see what happens.' Article content Tensions in the region have been rising in recent days as talks between the U.S. and Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program appear to have hit an impasse. The talks seek to limit Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions that the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful. Article content Article content The next round of talks — the sixth — had been tentatively scheduled for this weekend in Oman, according to two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic matters. However, those officials said Wednesday that it looked increasingly unlikely that the talks would happen. Article content Article content Trump, who has previously said Israel or the U.S. could carry out airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations failed, gave a less-than-optimistic view about reaching a deal with Iran, telling the New York Post's 'Pod Force One' podcast that he was 'getting more and more less confident about' a deal.
CTV News
11 hours ago
- CTV News
Iran says to target U.S. bases if conflict breaks out
Iranian domestically-built missile and drone are displayed during the Basij paramilitary force parade in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) TEHRAN, Iran — Iran threatened Wednesday to target U.S. military bases in the region if conflict breaks out, while President Donald Trump said he was 'less confident' about reaching a nuclear deal. Amid escalating tensions, a U.S. official said staff levels at the embassy in Iraq were being reduced over security concerns, while the UK Maritime Trade Operations, run by the British navy, advised ships to transit the Gulf with caution. Tehran and Washington have held five rounds of talks since April to thrash out a new nuclear deal to replace the 2015 accord that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018. Since returning to office in January, Trump has revived his 'maximum pressure' campaign on Tehran, backing nuclear diplomacy but warning of military action if it fails. 'All its bases are within our reach, we have access to them, and without hesitation we will target all of them in the host countries,' Iran's Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh said in response to U.S. threats of military action if the talks fail. 'God willing, things won't reach that point, and the talks will succeed,' the minister said, adding that the U.S. side 'will suffer more losses' if it came to conflict. The United States has multiple bases in the Middle East, with the largest located in Qatar. Iran and the United States have recently been locked in a diplomatic standoff over Iran's uranium enrichment, with Tehran defending it as a 'non-negotiable' right and Washington calling it as a 'red line'. Trump had previously expressed optimism about the talks, saying during a Gulf tour last month Washington was 'getting close' to securing a deal. But in an interview published Wednesday, Trump said he was 'less confident' the United States and Iran could reach a deal, in response to a question on whether he believed he could stop Tehran from enriching uranium. 'A shame' Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67-per cent limit set in the 2015 deal and close though still short of the 90 per cent needed for a nuclear warhead. Western countries, including the United States and its ally Israel, have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire atomic weapons, while Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. Last week, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said enrichment is 'key' to Iran's nuclear programme and that Washington 'cannot have a say' on the issue. During the interview with the New York Post's podcast 'Pod Force One', which was recorded on Monday, Trump said he was losing hope a deal could be reached. 'I don't know. I did think so, and I'm getting more and more -- less confident about it. They seem to be delaying and I think that's a shame. I am less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago,' he said. 'Something happened to them but I am much less confident of a deal being made... Maybe they don't wanna make a deal, what can I say? And maybe they do. There is nothing final.' Trump maintained that Washington would not allow Tehran to obtain nuclear weapons, saying 'it would be nicer to do it without warfare, without people dying'. On May 31, after the fifth round of talks, Iran said it had received 'elements' of a U.S. proposal for a nuclear deal, with Araghchi later saying the text contained 'ambiguities'. Iran has said it will present a counter-proposal to the latest draft from Washington, which it had criticised for failing to offer relief from sanctions -- a key demand for Tehran, which has been reeling under their weight for years. On Monday, the United Nations nuclear watchdog began a Board of Governors meeting in Vienna that will last until Friday to discuss Iran's atomic activities and other issues. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting followed a report issued by it criticising 'less than satisfactory' cooperation from Tehran, particularly in explaining past cases of nuclear material found at undeclared sites. Iran has criticised the IAEA report as unbalanced, saying it relied on 'forged documents' provided by its arch-foe Israel. In January 2020, Iran fired missiles at bases in Iraq housing American troops in retaliation for the U.S. strike that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani days before at Baghdad airport. Dozens of U.S. soldiers suffered traumatic brain injuries.
CTV News
11 hours ago
- CTV News
U.S. preparing to partially evacuate Iraq embassy over regional security risks, sources say
FILE - The U.S. Embassy is seen from across the Tigris River in Baghdad, Iraq on Jan. 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, File) The United States is preparing a partial evacuation of its Iraqi embassy and will allow military dependents to leave locations around the Middle East due to heightened security risks in the region, U.S. and Iraqi sources said on Wednesday. The four U.S. and two Iraqi sources did not specify which security risks had prompted the decision and reports of the potential evacuation pushed up oil prices by more than 4%. 'The State Department regularly reviews American personnel abroad and this decision was made as a result of a recent review,' White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Reuters when asked about reports of the partial evacuations, without giving further details. A White House official said U.S. President Donald Trump was aware of the move. The partial evacuations come at a moment of heightened tensions in a region already aflame after 18 months of war in Gaza that has raised fears of a wider conflagration pitting the U.S. and Israel against Iran and its allies. Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if stuttering talks over its nuclear program fail and on Wednesday he said he was growing less confident that Tehran would agree to stop enriching uranium, a key American demand. Iranian Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh also said on Wednesday that Iran would retaliate against U.S. bases in the region if the nuclear talks failed and it was subjected to strikes. The United States has a military presence in Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations across the Middle East, a U.S. official said. Another U.S. official said that was mostly relevant to family members located in Bahrain -- where the bulk of them are based. 'The State Department is set to have an ordered departure for (the) U.S. embassy in Baghdad. The intent is to do it through commercial means, but the U.S. military is standing by if help is requested,' a third U.S. official said. An Iraqi foreign ministry official said a 'partial evacuation' of U.S. embassy staff had been confirmed due to what the official termed 'potential security concerns related to possible regional tensions.' Another U.S. official said that there was no change in operations at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East and that no evacuation order had been issued for employees or families linked to the U.S. embassy in Qatar, which was operating as usual. Tensions Oil futures climbed US$3 on reports of the Baghdad evacuation with Brent crude futures at $69.18 a barrel. Earlier on Wednesday Britain's maritime agency warned that increased tensions in the Middle East may lead to an escalation in military activity that could impact shipping in critical waterways. It advised vessels to use caution while traveling through the Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Straits of Hormuz, which all border Iran. Iraq, a rare regional partner of both the United States and its arch regional foe Iran, hosts 2,500 U.S. troops and has Tehran-backed armed factions linked to its security forces. Tensions inside Iraq have heightened since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, with Iran-aligned armed groups in the country repeatedly attacking U.S. troops. Top U.S. regional ally Israel has also struck Iran-linked targets across the region, including Iraqi armed groups operating both inside Iraq and in neighboring Syria. Iran's U.N. mission on Wednesday posted on X: 'Threats of 'overwhelming force' won't change facts: Iran is not seeking a nuclear weapon and U.S. militarism only fuels instability.' The statement appeared to be a response to an earlier comment by U.S. Central Command chief U.S. Army General Michael Kurilla that he had provided the president with 'a wide range of options' to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Idrees Ali and Steve Holland in Washington, Ahmed Rasheed and Timour Azhari in Baghdad and Parisa Hafezi in Dubai; writing by Jaidaa Taha, Yomna Ehab and Angus McDowall; Editing by Deepa Babington
