Profits at the world's biggest oil company, Saudi Aramco, have almost halved as the industry struggles amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The state-owned Saudi Arabian oil giant posted figures of $11.8 billion for the three months to the end of September, down 44.6 percent compared with a year ago. 

However, those numbers had been widely predicted and showed something of a recovery from the historic fall in revenues in the the second quarter, when profits fell far lower.

Aramco also announced on Tuesday that its overall net profit for the first nine months of the year fell 48.6 percent, to $35.02 billion.

Despite the continuing slump, the company is maintaining a commitment to pay out dividends to shareholders, totaling $18.75 billion for Q3, honoring a pledge it made during its IPO last year.

Like other oil producers, the company hopes it can bounce back from the crisis. It announced significant spending cuts early in the pandemic, shelving several major projects. Aramco says it expects capital expenditure will be in the region of $25 billion for 2020, compared with $32.7 billion in 2019. Industry analysts say such cost-cutting and streamlining across the industry is prudent, and necessary.

However, Paul Stevens from the Energy, Environment and Resources Programme at Chatham House, an independent policy institute, says not all oil companies are the same, and that the fortunes and the responses of Saudi Aramco cannot be used as a marker for others.