Saudi king replaces energy minister, naming one of his sons.
Saudi Arabia's King Salman replaced the country's energy minister with one of his own sons Sunday, naming Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman to one of the most important positions in the country as oil prices remain stubbornly below what is needed to keep up with government spending.
His appointment marks the first time a Saudi prince from the ruling Al Saud heads the important energy ministry. Al-Falih was removed just days ago from his post as board chairman Aramco, a company that he once ran as CEO. Al-Falih had also seen his Cabinet portfolio diminished recently when mining and industry were removed from his purview and spun off into a new ministry.
Aramco's new board chairman is the finance-minded Yasir al-Rumayyan, who heads the Public Investment Fund, the country's sovereign wealth fund. Al-Rumayyan is also a close adviser to the crown prince. To keep oil prices from sliding even further, he led Saudi Arabia's curb on production in OPEC and the oil cartel's agreement with other major oil producers, like Russia, to cut production in past years. The major oil producers have agreed to curb production this year by 1.2 million barrels a day, with Saudi Arabia as the kingpin of OPEC shouldering the bulk of the cartel's cuts.
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