Oil giant, Saudi Aramco, has reported a record profit of $161.1bn for 2022, boosted by increasing energy prices and bigger volumes.

The profit represents a 46.5% rise for the state-owned company, compared with last year.

Aramco is the latest energy firm to report record profits after energy prices spiked following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

America's ExxonMobil reported $55.7bn for 2022, and Britain's Shell reported $39.9bn for the same year, respectively.

Aramco also declared a dividend of $19.5bn for the October to December quarter of 2022, to be paid in the first quarter of this year.

Most of the dividends will go to the Saudi government, which owns nearly 95% of the shares in the company.

Brent crude oil, the benchmark oil price, now trades at around $82 a barrel - though prices exceeded $120 a barrel last March, after Russia's invasion, and June.

"Aramco rode the wave of high energy prices in 2022," said Robert Mogielnicki of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. "It would have been difficult for Aramco not to perform strongly in 2022."

In a statement, Aramco said the company results were "underpinned by stronger crude oil prices, higher volumes sold and improved margins for refined products."

Aramco's president and CEO Amin Nasser said: "Given that we anticipate oil and gas will remain essential for the foreseeable future, the risks of underinvestment in our industry are real - including contributing to higher energy prices."

To address those challenges, he said the company would not only focus on expanding oil, gas, and chemicals production - but also invest in new lower-carbon technologies.

Saudi Aramco is the world’s biggest crude producer and one of the few companies with excess production capacity that can be used by the Saudi Arabian government to increase or decrease supply in line with global demand.