Saudis sharpen oil policy focus with energy ministry reshuffle

Bloomberg

With oil trading below Saudi Arabia’s break-even level, energy policy is a top priority for the world’s biggest crude exporter. Following the loss of most of his domestic portfolio, Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih will now have more time to work on balancing the market.
Saudi Arabia will split the vast energy, industry and mining portfolio that Al-Falih had run since 2016 into two separate ministries. The reshuffle, announced as part of a raft of royal decrees, sees Al-Falih keeping responsibility over energy policy and losing the industry and mining aspects of the role.
Al-Falih has been the face of Opec diplomacy over the past three years as the producer group has sought to counter the rising tide of US shale oil that flooded markets. The ministry reshuffle won’t change Saudi oil policy as the kingdom remains focused on curtailing production to balance crude markets and prop up prices, said Edward Bell, commodities analyst at lender Emirates NBD PJSC in Dubai.
“This is crunch time now for the next couple of months” as crude suppliers struggle to deal with the US-China trade war and the potential adverse impact on the global economy, Bell said.
Saudi Arabia has cut production to less than 10 million barrels a day as part of its agreement with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to limit output. Al-Falih helped broker the deal that brought other producers like Russia into the effort to balance markets by curbing production.