Saudi Aramco's downstream profit behind peers in H1 2017

Saudi Aramco’s downstream profit lagged major rivals in the first half of 2017, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

Aramco’s accounting data showed that the state-owned oil giant made almost all of its profit in upstream during the period, with downstream delivering just $842 million in net income, compared to a loss of $484 million in H1 2016, the news agency said.

The financial data did not explain why Aramco trailed other oil firms in downstream.

Meanwhile, Shell and Exxon made $5 billion and $4.7 billion, respectively, from refining and chemicals in H1 2017.

News reports last week said that Aramco had net income of $33.8 billion in H1 2017 and cash flows of $52.1 billion.

Aramco pumps about 10 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and plans to raise its refining capacity to between 8 million to 10 million bpd from around 5 million bpd.