Ali Al-Naimi was replaced as oil minister, a post he held since 1995, and named an adviser to the royal court with the rank of minister.
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The wildfire in the heart of Canada’s oil-producing region continues to rage and is taking at least 645,000 barrels a day of supply out of the market, according to calculations made from public announcements from the producers in the area.
Presenting the Saudi Aramco strategy at the press conference, the company said that “by 2020, we intend to be the world leading integrated energy and chemicals company, focused on maximizing value creation across the hydrocarbon chain, facilitating the sustainable expansion of the Kingdom’s economy and enabling a vibrant Saudi energy sector”. Nasser’s predecessor as CEO, Khalid Al-Falih, who was appointed oil minister Saturday, said he’ll keep Saudi oil policy unchanged. “It represents a continuation of the path they’ve been on”. The change comes as a part of a larger government shake-up to bring the country’s ministries in line with the recently announced Saudi Vision 2030. The prince is letting the market dictate prices, with Saudi Arabia only adjusting its production to respond to demand.
But Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman rubbished the idea of an agreement without Iran, which has steadfastly refused to negotiate any limit on its rising oil output because it hopes to ramp up production to its pre-sanction levels.
“This guy is the new power broker in that country”, Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst at Price Futures Group, told MarketWatch. But Saudi Arabia’s low production costs mean the kingdom is able to withstand a low price oil environment. The change came after a sustained decline in oil prices; oil prices have fallen as much as 70 percent since mid-2014 amid an energy supply surplus and a slowdown in global demand growth. Over the next couple of weeks, Shaybah oil field production will rise by 33% to 1 million barrels/day. The Ministry of Petroleum will also be renamed to the Ministry of Energy, Industry, and Natural Resources.
Analysts say Saudi Arabia’s goal is to maintain its global market share.
Saudi Arabia’s long serving oil minister has been replaced by the current chairman of Saudi Aramco.
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Saudi Aramco also plans to raise its refining capacity to 8 million-10 million barrels a day from its current capacity of around 5.4 million barrels a day. At the producers meeting in Qatar last month Naimi was reportedly willing to agree to freeze production without Iran, but Prince Salman disagreed and no output cap was agreed on.
