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RIAD: King Salman of Saudi Arabia replaced the energy minister on Sunday with one of his children, state media said, in a major shock as OPEC falters due to low oil prices. <\/p>\n
The appointment of Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, half brother of the de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, marks the first time that a member of the royal family has been put in charge of the very important ministry of energy. <\/p>\n
It replaces veteran official Khalid al-Falih, as the world's leading oil exporter accelerates preparations for a long-awaited stock exchange of state oil giant Aramco, which is expected to be the largest in the world. <\/p>\n
\nIt is the first time that a member of the royal family receives the position of this important ministry.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
"Khalid al-Falih was removed from office," said the official Saudi press agency, citing a royal decree. "His royal highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman is appointed energy minister." <\/p>\n
Since his appointment as minister in 2016, Falih had been the face of Saudi energy policy, but the veteran technocrat had seen his portfolio shrink in recent weeks. <\/p>\n
His dismissal comes a few days after he was dismissed as president of Aramco and replaced by Yasir al-Rumayyan, governor of the vast Public Investment Fund of the kingdom. <\/p>\n
Falih's powers declined last month when the world's leading oil exporter announced the creation of a new ministry of industry and mineral resources, separating it from its ministry of energy. <\/p>\n
It was widely speculated that senior officials were not satisfied with Falih since oil prices sank before the Aramco IPO. <\/p>\n
The economic uncertainty fueled by an ongoing trade war between the United States and China has brought Brent crude oil prices to around $ 60 per barrel in recent weeks, well below the $ 85 mark that experts say is necessary to balance the Saudi budget. <\/p>\n
"Experienced veteran"<\/p>\n
The cartel of OPEC oil exporters and key non-OPEC members will meet Thursday in Abu Dhabi to review their strategy to limit production to stop a price drop. <\/p>\n
The Saudi Arabian cartel boss, who pumps about a third of OPEC oil, has resorted to massive production cuts to raise prices since the market's fall in mid-2014. <\/p>\n
It was not clear if there would be a change in policy under Prince Abdulaziz, who joined the oil ministry in the 1980s and has held various high-level positions. <\/p>\n
"Prince Abdulaziz is a very experienced veteran in the formulation of Saudi and OPEC policies," Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group, told Bloomberg News. <\/p>\n
"It will not have a learning curve. I do not expect a major break in the current Saudi oil policy." <\/p>\n
His appointment further concentrates power within the king's family. His other son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, controls the main levers of power and is the heir to the most powerful throne in the Arab world. <\/p>\n
A younger son, Prince Khalid bin Salman, is Deputy Minister of Defense. <\/p>\n
Aramco is intensifying efforts to float around five percent of the company, seeking to raise up to $ 100 billion based on a $ 2 billion valuation of the entire company. <\/p>\n
But low oil prices have left some investors in doubt that Aramco is really worth so much. The impossibility of reaching a valuation of $ 2 billion as desired by Saudi rulers is widely considered the reason why the OPV, previously scheduled for 2018, was delayed. <\/p>\n
The planned IPO is the cornerstone of a reform program planned by the crown prince to keep the Saudi economy away from its dependence on oil. <\/p>\n
Saudi Aramco has not announced where the quotation will take place, but London, New York and Hong Kong have competed for a portion of the much announced IPO.<\/p>\n
Posted in Dawn, September 9, 2019<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/pre>\n<\/pre>\n
Source: https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1504333\/saudi-king-appoints-son-as-energy-minister<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RIAD: King Salman of Saudi Arabia replaced the energy minister on Sunday with one of his children, state media said, in a major shock as OPEC falters due to low oil prices. The appointment of Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, half brother of the de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, marks the first time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11077],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newspaper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}