The company’s net income increased by 158 percent from a year ago to $30.4 billion RIYADH: Saudi Aramco has become the world’s most profitable company in the third quarter of 2021, beating tech giants such as Google, Amazon and Apple, as well as other listed energy companies such as ExxonMobil and Shell. Thanks to the recent increase in oil prices, the Dhahran-based company reported on Sunday that its net income in the third quarter increased by 158 percent from a year ago to SR114 billion ($30.4 billion), compared to $11.8 billion a year ago, with a jump in it sales by 80 percent to SR359 billion ($96 billion). Aramco president and CEO Amin Nasser, said in a statement: “Our exceptional third quarter performance was a result of increased economic activity in key markets and a rebound in energy demand, as well as our unique low-cost position, our financial discipline and our proven ability to reliably deliver essential energy and chemical products to our customers. “Some headwinds still exist for the global economy, partly due to supply chain bottlenecks, but we are optimistic that energy demand will remain healthy for the foreseeable future,” he added. “Looking ahead, we are maintaining our strategy to invest for the long term, and we will build on our track record of low-cost and low-carbon intensity performance to advance our recently announced ambition to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions across our wholly-owned operated assets by 2050.” Crude prices have been helped by production cuts made by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, a group known as OPEC+, which meets later this week. As consumption picks up, the group has gradually started adding barrels back to the market, with plans to pump 400,000 more barrels a day each month through December and raise Saudi Arabia’s limit of 11 million barrels to 11.5 million next year.