(Dubai) Saudi oil giant Aramco posted a second-quarter profit of US$30 billion on Monday, a 40% decline from a year earlier that the company blames on lower oil prices.

Its quarterly sales were just over US$106 billion, up from US$150 billion at the same time last year.

Aramco reported a profit of US$48 billion in the second quarter of last year.

The company still increased earnings paid to shareholders to $29.38 billion from $18.8 billion in the same quarter a year ago.

Last week, Fortune magazine ranked Aramco the world’s second largest company based on revenue ― behind Walmart, but ahead of Amazon and Apple.

The company made a profit of US$160 billion in 2022.