A Supreme Council of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) chaired by Deputy Crown Prince and Defence Minister Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has been formed, Saudi Aramco has announced in a statement.
It said that a meeting of the Saudi Aramco board of directors in Seoul on 29 April was told by chairman Ali al-Naimi, the kingdom’s Minister of Petroleum & Mineral Resources, that the council will comprise 10 members, half of whom are members of Saudi Aramco’s board of directors.
No further details of the membership of the council have been released. On the same day, Khalid al-Falih, Saudi Aramco’s president and chief executive officer, was named the company’s chairman to replace Al-Naimi, who had held the post since 1995.
Also on 29 April, Al-Falih was appointed Minister of Health in a cabinet reshuffle following the announcement that Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the kingdom’s Interior Minister, had been made crown prince to replace Prince Muqrin Bin Abdelaziz and that Prince Mohammed Bin Salman had been made deputy crown prince.
The creation of the Saudi Aramco council follows the abolition in January of the Supreme Council for Petroleum & Mineral Affairs.
On 1 May, it was announced that Saudi Aramco would be split from the ministry and that Amin H Nasser had been named acting president and chief executive officer to replace Al-Falih. Amin has been a member of the Saudi Aramco board since 2010 and senior vice president for upstream since 2008.
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