Aramco Cuts Third-Quarter Capex 16% Even as Revenue and Profit Climb

Capex fell 16 percent from a year earlier to $10.5 billion. Revenue rose 26 percent to $140.5 billion on higher crude prices, and net profit increased 35 percent to $36.3 billion, helped in part by an asset sale. Aramco said the lower spending was mostly a matter of project timing.

The results cover a quarter shaped by what AGBI described as seven months of disruption from the Iran war and attacks by militias in Yemen and Iraq. In July, Houthi forces hit the Yanbu Red Sea terminal and the Jazan refinery. In September, suspected Iraqi militias forced the East-West pipeline to close.

"Geopolitical uncertainty and attacks on key energy facilities continued to amplify the global energy supply crisis in the third quarter of 2026, with serious implications for global energy security," president and CEO Amin Nasser said in the statements.

Nine-Month Picture

For the first nine months, net income rose to $101 billion, up just over a third, on a 21 percent increase in revenue. Capex for the period was $35.8 billion, against $37.4 billion a year earlier. Crude averaged $95 a barrel in the third quarter, compared with $70 a year before. Output moved the other way: total hydrocarbon production fell 17 percent in the quarter and 15 percent over nine months.

AGBI reported that Saudi Arabia kept oil exports as high as 8.5 million barrels per day and benefited from elevated prices. Free cash flow passed $28 billion by the end of September, up 20 percent. Aramco will pay a third-quarter base dividend of $21.9 billion in the final quarter of the year, 3.5 percent more than a year earlier, bringing base dividends for the nine months to $65.7 billion.

AI and Humain in the Spending Plan

Aramco kept its 2026 capex guidance at $50 billion to $55 billion. According to AGBI, that range includes restoration costs and the company's investment in Humain, Saudi Arabia's main artificial intelligence initiative. Aramco has now taken a 49 percent stake in Humain, with the Public Investment Fund owning the rest.

Nasser said the company would keep focusing on priority projects and would use AI to improve performance and open up new opportunities. He also said Aramco was looking at more overseas storage capacity and alternative export routes. The company is doing preliminary engineering for an expansion of the East-West pipeline and studying alternative routes through its gas network.

Aramco said its offshore Zuluf crude increment project is complete, lifting its maximum sustainable capacity to 12 million barrels per day. It is also expanding beyond hydrocarbons. In October it signed a contract with Houston-based National Energy Services Reunited for a lithium demonstration project expected to produce 2,000 tonnes a year of battery-grade lithium carbonate, and in August it agreed a minerals exploration joint venture with Maaden.

The government of Saudi Arabia owns 81.5 percent of Aramco and the PIF holds 16 percent, leaving 2.5 percent in the hands of minority investors. The shares closed at SAR26.10 on Monday, up more than 9 percent since the start of the year.

For investors following Gulf AI, the results show that Aramco is funding Humain from inside its normal capex envelope, at a time when war damage and rerouting are adding to its costs.