Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporter and so was hit hard by the sharp drop in the price.
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Traders were also watching developments after Saudi Arabia’s surprise replacement of veteran oil minister Ali al-Naimi with a close ally of Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It’s being prepared for a mammoth stock market listing to raise money to help reduce the kingdom’s addiction to oil. By comparison, Falih was “more accepting of not including Iran”.
Five new cabinet ministers were sworn in on Monday by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz following a major cabinet reshuffle in the oil-rich kingdom.
“With time, as people get to know what he has to say, the markets will get to know how to interpret his comments”, Hamade added.
Amin H. Nasser, the President and CEO of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), Tuesday said the company was planning “significant growth” in output this year. The paper said Aramco will be listed in London, Hong Kong and NY, as well as its home turf of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. “With concerns easing over Canadian oil supply disruptions, crude oil could come under additional pressure”, ANZ Bank said.
By last month, with prices hovering just above $30 a barrel-much lower than OPEC members had either expected or could comfortably tolerate-al-Naimi had started to show signs of softening.
In an undeclared war against U.S. shale producers, he led the OPEC countries’ continued refusal to cut their own oil production, thus allowing global supply to rise and prices to fall.
“This is giving the market hope that China’s appetite for crude will remain elevated at a time when the world is flooded with oil”, said Ben Le Brun, an energy analyst at Sydney-based optionsXpress.
Other decrees announced on Saturday changed the head of the central bank (with Mr Ahmed Alkholifey taking over from Mr Fahad Al-Mubarak), renamed and combined ministries, and put new officials in charge of water, commerce, social affairs, health and transport. MBS has made it clear in recent interviews that he does not see any immediate urgency for higher oil prices and is instead focused on ending his country’s dependence on hydrocarbons as part of a sweeping reform that includes the partial privatization of Aramco…
“He was the de facto leader of OPEC, given Saudi Arabia’s position”, he said.
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An attempt to curb global output was foiled last month when Saudi Arabia refused to take part because geopolitical rival Iran wasn’t involved.
