DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—Oil giant Saudi Aramco said on March 15 its profits dropped 20 percent in 2019 to $88.2 billion, a sharp decline coming as the kingdom stands ready to flood an already-weakened global energy market amid the new coronavirus pandemic.
The announcement by the firm formally known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co. did not address the kingdom’s plans to crank up production to record levels after a meeting earlier this month between OPEC and Russia failed to see nations agree to a production cut. That led to a 25 percent plunge in the price of crude, the sharpest decline seen since the 1991 Gulf War, and fears of a price war further dragging down the market.
