Sunday September 8, 2019
FILE - In this Sept. 25, 1990 file photo, oil pipelines snake through the port area of the Aramco facility at Ras Tannura, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s renewed push to publicly list its most valuable entity, Aramco, is part of a high-stakes plan by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to prepare the country for a future less dependent on oil for survival. (Tannen Maury, File/Associated Press)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia’s King Salman replaced the country’s energy minister with one of his own sons Sunday, naming Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman to one of the most important positions in the country as oil prices remain stubbornly below what is needed to keep up with government spending.
The new energy minister is an older half brother to 34-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and an experienced oil industry figure in Saudi Arabia. He has been minister of state for energy affairs since 2017, but the brothers are not known to be close.
His appointment marks the first time a Saudi prince from the ruling Al Saud heads the important energy ministry.
The move comes as Brent crude oil trades under $60 a barrel, well below the $80-$85 range that analysts say is needed to balance the Saudi budget.
Prince Abdulaziz replaces Khalid al-Falih, who had been removed just days ago as board chairman of the state-owned oil giant Aramco, a company that he once ran as CEO. Al-Falih had also seen his Cabinet portfolio diminished recently when mining and industry were removed from his purview and spun off into a new ministry.
Al-Falih’s diminishing role had led to reports that he was out of favor with the crown prince, who is pushing to diversify the Saudi economy away from its dependence on oil revenue for survival.
A key part of the crown prince’s plan is to sell shares in Aramco, as much as 5%, by 2020 or 2021. Aramco’s new board chairman, who replaced al-Falih, is the finance-minded Yasir al-Rumayyan, who heads the Public Investment Fund, the country’s sovereign wealth fund. Al-Rumayyan is also a close adviser to the crown prince.
Higher oil prices not only help Saudi Arabia balance its budget, but also directly affect Aramco’s overall valuation as it heads toward a potential listing.
Al-Falih, who had been energy minister since 2016, was tasked with playing a key role in the prince’s economic overhaul of the country. He expressed concern in January at an energy forum in Abu Dhabi over the “range of volatility” in oil prices seen over the past two to three years.
To keep oil prices from sliding even further, he led Saudi Arabia’s curb on production in OPEC and the oil cartel’s agreement with other major oil producers, like Russia, to cut production in past years. The major oil producers have agreed to curb production this year by 1.2 million barrels a day, with Saudi Arabia as the kingpin of OPEC shouldering much of the bulk of the cartel’s cuts.
Still, Saudi Arabia’s diversification efforts have struggled to take off as government spending reaches an all-time of $295 billion this year.
The kingdom’s new energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz, has a lifetime of experience in energy. In his 20s he became an adviser to the energy minister in 1985 before being named deputy oil minister in 1995, a position he held for nearly a decade. He then served as assistant oil minister until 2017, when he was named minister of state for energy affairs. He holds degrees from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals.
Also on Sunday, the king issued a royal decree removing the current deputy minister of energy, Abdulaziz al-Abdulkarim. He did not name a new deputy energy minister.
The king did, however, name Osama bin Abdulaziz Al-Zamil as deputy minister for the new Ministry of Mining and Industry. The decrees, issued early Sunday, were published by the state-run Saudi Press Agency.