Saudi King names first royal energy minister

Following last week’s decision related to the creation of an independent ministry of industry and mineral resources, separating it from the energy ministry, this weekend Saudi Arabia’s King Salman announced that one of his son’s, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, will be leading the energy portfolio.

The prince -the first royal to hold the position in the world’s top oil exporter- has been minister of state for energy affairs since 2017. Prior to this post, he served as assistant oil minister and before that, he was deputy oil minister. Throughout his career, he has been a member of the kingdom’s delegation to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Prince Abdulaziz’s appointment means that Khalid al-Falih, who led the ministry during the 2016-2019 period, was the face of OPEC diplomacy over the past three years and spearheaded the idea of curtailing production to balance crude markets and prop up prices, is out of the cabinet.

Al-Falih was also removed as board chairman of the state-owned oil company Aramco, despite the fact that he was the executive arm behind the plan to list it maybe as soon as 2020. Aramco is considered the most profitable company on the planet with revenues of $355.9 billion in 2018.

(With files from Reuters).