DHAHRAN — The Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) on Tuesday announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2020. These results highlight the company’s financial and operational strength, despite market volatility and the impact of COVID-19 on the global economy.

Aramco continues to demonstrate its strength and resilience across economic cycles, navigating challenging market conditions to record net income of $11.8 billion and free cash flow of $12.4 billion in the third quarter of 2020.

Aramco declared a dividend of $18.75 billion for the quarter. Q3 capital expenditure was $6.4 billion and Aramco continues to execute capital spending optimization and efficiency programs in response to the current business environment.

Total hydrocarbon production for the first nine months of 2020 was 12.4 million barrels per day of oil equivalent, of which 9.2 million barrels per day was crude oil.

The company delivered crude and other products with 100% reliability in the third quarter of 2020, continuing its strong track record of supply reliability.

Aramco achieved a record historic single-day natural gas production of 10.7 bscfd on Aug. 6, 2020 from both conventional and unconventional fields.

Commenting on the results, Aramco President & CEO Amin H. Nasser, said: “We saw early signs of a recovery in the third quarter due to improved economic activity, despite the headwinds facing global energy markets.

“Meanwhile, we maintained our commitment to shareholder value by declaring a dividend of $18.75 billion for the third quarter.

“Aramco’s integration with SABIC is proceeding as planned. Our resilience is supported by our unique scale, low upstream carbon intensity and low production costs.

“As the global economic and social landscape evolves, these strengths and our continued drive to lower GHG emissions mean we are well positioned to support the energy needs of the global economic recovery.

“We continue to adopt a disciplined and flexible approach to capital allocation in the face of market volatility. We are confident in Aramco’s ability to manage through these challenging times and deliver on our objectives.

“We are making progress on multiple fronts, including the world’s first blue ammonia shipment for zero-carbon power generation in Japan — further strengthening our focus on new and innovative solutions that contribute to the global energy transition.” — SPA