DUBAI, Oct 31, 2021 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabian state oil producer Aramco’s (2222.SE) announced its third-quarter net earnings more than multiplied, boosted by more expensive crude oil rates and volumes sold on Sunday, overcoming analysts’ forecasts.

The oil giant’s best quarterly profits since its listing in December 2019 were fed by the strongest quarterly average crude costs since its shares began selling.

After the company published its results, Aramco shares were up 1% in initial trade and have grown about 9% this year to a business valuation of just over $2 trillion, an object sought by de-facto Saudi head Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before the company’s first public offering.

Aramco’s net income surged to $30.4 billion for the quarter to Sept 30 from $11.8 billion a year earlier, announced in a bourse filing. That was above the medial net profit estimate of $28.4 billion from four critics.

“Our outstanding third-quarter performance was a consequence of increased economic movement in key markets and a rebound in energy market, as well as our different low-cost position,” Amin Nasser, Aramco’s chief executive, told in a statement.

Rita Guindy, a critic at Arqaam Securities, said the consecutive earnings growth is mainly motivated by the upstream segment – with a 12% quarter-on-quarter increase in crude oil quantities at 9.6 million barrels per day and a more expensive oil price.

Aramco (s) free cash flow increased to $28.7 billion from $12.4 billion. In addition, it reported a dividend of $18.8 billion for the third quarter, in order with its guidance.

“There is good potential for an extraordinary dividend at the end of this year and that seems more and more possible now, in my opinion,” said Yousef Husseini, an inquisitor at EFG Hermes, remarking Aramco’s strong free cash flow and powerful de-leveraging.

Oil prices have surged to multi-year highs, with global crude futures soaring 4.5% in the quarter, helped by the ruling by OPEC+ to maintain its planned production increase rather than establishing it on global supply concerns.

Brent oil futures are selling around $84.4 a barrel, up about 63% this year, while benchmark U.S. crude is at approximately $83.57 a barrel, up only over 70% over the same time.

Aramco’s market capitalization is just under Apple’s (AAPL.O) market cap of $2.46 trillion but over Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) $1.9 trillion valuations.

Of its Aramco competitors, Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) also posted its biggest quarterly net earnings since the last quarter of 2017, while Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) published a third-quarter profit of $4.13 billion last week, beneath analyst estimates, sending its share price below Aramco’s capital expense rose 19% from a year earlier to $7.6 billion in the quarter.