A Saudi oil company has the world's highest net earnings. State-owned Saudi Arabian oil company Saudi Aramco has beat giants such as Apple, Alphabet [owner of Google, -ed.] and ExxonMobil when it comes to generating earnings.

In the first half of 2017, Aramco generated earnings of USD 33.8 billion. With USD 28.9 billion, Apple came in with the second-largest earnings, reports Bloomberg News.

The media reports that the Aramco numbers from 2017 are interesting because this is the first timein several decades that the public has access to the numbers from the company.

The accounts show that the company is almost debt-free and that Aramco has far lower production costs that the rest of the oil industry.

The figures were disclosed ahead of a potential listing of Aramco. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will list the company which generates a large share of Saudi Arabia's annual earnings.

The prince has estimated the company's worth at USD 2,000 billion. Therefore, a sale of just 5 percent of the company shares would be value creation of USD 100 billion, making it the largest IPO ever, reports Bloomberg News. The largest to date was Chinese company Alibaba which raised USD 25 billion in 2014.

The company says to Bloomberg News that the figures are not precise and that they do not reflect the company's financial status.

Mohammed bin Salman will list the company to make Saudi Arabia ready for when the oil price once again increases.

English Edit: Lena Rutkowski

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