Saudi Arabia’s Aramco reported a record second-quarter net profit of $48.4 billion on Sunday, driven by higher crude oil prices following Russia’s war in Ukraine and strong post-pandemic demand, AFP reported.

Net profit rose 90 percent from a year earlier, giving the world’s biggest oil producer a second straight quarterly record after posting a net profit of $39.5 billion in January-March.

“While global market volatility and economic uncertainty remain, events in the first half of this year reinforce our view that continued investment in our industry is essential both to ensure sufficient supply to markets and to facilitate an orderly energy transition,” the statement said. Aramco. General Director Amin Nasser.

“In fact, we expect oil demand to continue to grow through the end of the decade despite near-term economic pressures,” he added.

Aramco’s April-June net profit rose 22.7% from the first quarter in a “strong market”, the Saudi company said in a statement. Net profit for the first half was $87.91 billion, compared to $47.18 billion for the same period in 2021.

Aramco paid out $18.8 billion in dividends in the second quarter and will pay the same amount in the third quarter.

Second-quarter profit, the biggest since Aramco’s IPO in late 2019, beat analysts’ expectations of $46.2 billion.

Aramco floated 1.7 percent of its shares on the Saudi stock exchange in December 2019, raising $29.4 billion, the largest initial public offering in history.

The company, the flagship of the conservative kingdom and a major source of revenue for Saudi Arabia, temporarily overthrew Apple as the world’s most valuable company in March before slipping to second place.