Saudi Energy Minister to take on manufacturing and minerals post
Saudi Arabia has put Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman in charge of both energy and industry after the Iran war exposed how disruptions to oil shipments, trade routes and manufacturing can quickly spill across the economy.
In appointing Prince Abdulaziz Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources in addition to his current post, the government aims to centralize decisions across oil, mining and factories as it works to reduce its dependence on crude exports, Asharq Al-Wasat reports.
Under the new structure, Prince Abdulaziz will lead efforts to expand manufacturing, increase non-oil exports and raise the sector’s contribution to the economy to almost $240 billion by 2030.
Former Industry Minister Bandar Alkhorayef will remain in the cabinet and take charge of the kingdom’s military industries regulator.
Saudi energy minister says ‘every molecule’ of fuel needed
Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told a gathering of oil and gas executives in Russia that the world needs “every molecule of energy” that can be produced amid the current geopolitical upheaval.
“There are so many moving parts, there are so many unknowns, there are things that you think have become a reality, but then you wake up the next morning, and the reality is no longer a reality,” Prince Abdulaziz said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
The comments come as the Iran war threatens oil exports and shipping routes across the Gulf while the Ukraine conflict continues to disrupt Russian energy flows, presenting unprecedented challenges for global energy markets, Reuters reports.
OPEC Secretary General, Haitham Al Ghais, meanwhile, told the conference he expects robust oil demand growth and is not changing its estimates, which are at the higher end of the industry’s range. “We need to invest well ahead of time to be prepared for the demand that we see in the future,” he said.
On the sidelines of the conference, Prince Abdulaziz met Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who said the pair agreed that uncertainty over global oil demand is making it harder for producers to plan long-term investments. “Estimates made just a few years ago now need to be fundamentally revised,” Novak said.
