Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco, has reported record breaking profits of $161.1bn for the year 2022, a 46.5% rise compared to last year.
The company's soaring profits can be attributed to the rise in energy prices which came after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Aramco is the latest huge energy firm to report record high profits.
It announced a dividend of $19.5 billion to be distributed in Q1 of this year.
However, these results come amid concerns about climate change, as Amnesty International questioned the ethics of such profits.
In further details, Aramco is the world's largest oil company and owns 95% of the company's share.
The company announced that it made more profit in 2022 than Shell, BP, Exxon, and Chevron combined.
Aramco CEO and President Amin Nasser said that he believes that oil and gas will remain important for the foreseeable future, citing a tightly balanced market with only 2 million barrels of spare capacity.
Aramco would spend $37.6bn in expanding its production capacity to leverage market demand.
Moreover, the company is going to pay a dividend of $19.5bn in Q1 of this year.
Most of the dividend amount will go to the Saudi Arabian government as it owns nearly 95% of the shares in the company.
Aramco also hopes to capitalize on market demand and China's re-opening to generate the billions necessary to fund Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's plan to develop futuristic cityscapes and transform the country away from reliance on oil.
However, these plans are controversial given intensive international concerns over fossil fuel burning and accelerating climate change, especially in the face of calls for action ahead of November's U.N. Climate Change Conference in Egypt.
Amnesty International Secretary-General, Agnes Callamard, criticized Aramco's record profits coming amid global climate change concerns, citing Saudi Arabia's promise to help limit the impact of the climate crisis.