Saudi Arabia’s state oil giant pays $100bn dividend as MBS seeks to fund ‘mirror city’

SAUDI ARABIA’S state-owned oil company has paid out nearly $100bn (£77bn) in dividends as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman seeks to fund ambitious plans to build a “mirror-clad city” in the desert.

Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer, increased payouts by 30pc to $98bn in 2023 despite a 25pc slump in profits. The company signalled yesterday that dividends distributed to investors and Saudi Arabia’s government will increase further in 2024.

The Opec+ cartel, led by Russia and Saudi Arabia, extended cuts to oil supplies just earlier this month as part of efforts to boost prices.

The dividends will provide a boost for Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, who faces a widening budget deficit after spending hundreds of billions on outlandish projects to diversify the economy from oil.

Riyadh is forecasting budget deficits every year until 2026, with officials pushing back the timeline of the so-called giga-projects.

Saudi Arabia earlier this week transferred an 8pc stake in Aramco worth $163.6bn to the country’s sovereign wealth fund, increasing the state’s ownership of the oil company. The shares provide the main source of revenue for MBS’S diversification efforts.

The ambitious projects include MBS’S plans to build a futuristic mirror-clad skyscraper, called the Mirror Line, that will stretch 75 miles across the desert.

The proposed mega-city, which would be the largest structure in the world, will house 5m people and have vertical gardens where vegetables are harvested by robots. The science fiction-esque project, expected to cost about $1trillion, has no completion date and may take 50 years to finish.