Saudi Aramco has pledged to pay shareholders US$124 billion this year, despite first-quarter products falling due to lower oil prices.
Aramco announced a maintained quarterly dividend of US$31 billion even though earnings in the three months to end March 2024 dropped by 14% to US$27.3 n billion.
The oil giant is 82% owned by the Saudi government, which will be the major recipient of the dividends.
Total payments this year will amount to US$124.3 billion, it added, made up of base payments and US$43.1 billion in performance-related top ups.
Saudi relies on income from Aramco to fund a raft of green and technology projects, including the desert-located smart city of Neom seen as the jewel in the crown of its current Visin 2020 plan to move away from oil dependence.
Aramco wanted to increase production in January to 13 million barrels a day from 12 million, but this was vetoed by the Saudi government which wants to keep crude prices high.
The Riyadh government also intends to sell more shares in the group to raise additional cash, according to Reuters.
Separately, Aramco is said to be in talks with Shell to buy the UK group’s petrol stations in Malaysia in a deal reported to be worth up to US$ one billion.
Shell has 950 stations in the country, second only to Petronas said the report.