Aramco Posts 25% Profit Jump as War Reshapes Global Energy Markets

Saudi Aramco earned a net profit of $32.5 billion in the three months ended March 31, beating an LSEG consensus estimate of $30.95 billion , the company reported Sunday. The world's largest oil-producing company reported a 25 per cent annual rise in first-quarter net profit, with net profit for the three months to the end of March rising to 120 billion Saudi riyals ($32 billion), up from 95.68 billion riyals that the company reported in the same period a year earlier .

The earnings surge comes as Aramco's East-West pipeline has reached its maximum capacity of 7 million barrels of oil per day, proving itself to be "a critical supply artery, helping to mitigate the impact of a global energy shock and providing relief to customers affected by shipping constraints in the Strait of Hormuz" , according to CEO Amin Nasser. Following the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran after the start of the war on February 28, Saudi Arabia shifted exports to its west coast .

First Qatari LNG Shipment Breaks Through Hormuz Blockade

In a potentially significant development, a tanker carrying liquefied natural gas from Qatar appears to have transited the Strait of Hormuz, marking the country's first export out of the region since the Iran war began, with the Al Kharaitiyat, which loaded at the Ras Laffan export plant earlier this month, exiting the strait and now in the Gulf of Oman , according to Bloomberg ship-tracking data. The vessel lists Pakistan as its next destination .

Sources told Reuters that Iran had approved the latest shipment from Qatar and Pakistan under a government-to-government deal, with Islamabad, which has been mediating an end to the war, struggling with an energy crisis . While the Al Kharaitiyat's journey offers tentative signs that more LNG flows could resume, it's a far cry from prewar levels of roughly three shipments a day out of the Persian Gulf .

U.S. Strategic Reserve Drops to Multi-Decade Lows

The Trump administration continues to drain America's emergency oil stockpile at unprecedented rates. Between the week ending March 20 and the week ending April 24, the U.S. Department of Energy released a total of 17.5 million barrels of crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, with DOE releasing 7.1 million barrels in the week ending April 24, the most released since the week ending October 7, 2022, leaving SPR stocks at 397.9 million barrels , according to the Energy Information Administration.

The US Department of Energy has issued a new request for proposal for up to 92.5 million barrels from the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to alleviate oil supply tightness in the wake of the US-Israeli war on Iran, the latest step in the implementation of a 172-million-barrel release by President Donald Trump's administration under a broader 400-million-barrel crude injection co-ordinated by International Energy Agency member countries , The Energy Year reported.

Global Oil Shortage Deepens Every Day

The scale of the supply disruption continues to worsen. Shell CEO Wael Sawan told investors Thursday that the oil market faces a shortage of nearly 1 billion barrels that will only get worse every day the conflict in the Middle East drags on, saying "the hard facts are we have dug ourselves a hole of close to a billion barrels of crude shortage at the moment, either because of locked in barrels or unproduced barrels," and "of course, that hole is deepening every single day, so the journey back will be a long one" .

Morgan Stanley estimates global oil stockpiles dropped by about 4.8 million barrels a day between March 1 and April 25 — far exceeding the previous peak for a quarterly drawdown in data compiled by the International Energy Agency, with crude accounting for almost 60% of the decline, and refined fuels the rest , Fortune reported.

The 2026 Iran war, including the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has led to what the International Energy Agency has characterized as the "largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market" , according to multiple sources.

China Cuts Energy Imports as Crisis Bites

Even China, the world's largest energy importer, is feeling the strain. Crude oil imports fell 20% in April to 38.5 million metric tons compared to a year earlier, hitting their lowest level since July 2022 , according to customs data released Saturday by Dawn.

The disruption in the Middle East has led China to tightly manage exports of refined products such as gasoline or jet fuel to protect its domestic market, with that policy driving refined oil product exports for April down to their lowest in roughly a decade at 3.1 million tons, down by about a third since March .

According to market data, WTI crude traded at $71.50 per barrel on Friday, up 0.6%, while Brent crude stood at $75.20 per barrel, up 0.5%. Henry Hub natural gas fell 2.4% to $3.25 per MMBtu.

ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil producer, has warned that import-dependent countries could face critical shortages by June or July , CNBC reported. Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods said Friday that it will likely take as long as two months for oil flows to normalize once the Strait of Hormuz reopens .