Former Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih returns as investment minister

Dubai — Former Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih has been appointed minister of a newly-created investment ministry, according to a royal decree, state-run Saudi Press Agency reported on Tuesday.

No other details were available about the remit of the new ministry which will replace the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, which itself was tasked with helping to attract investments to the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman appointed his son Abdulaziz as energy minister in September to replace Falih, who had held the post since 2017. It was the first appointment of a royal to head the energy ministry.

Falih spearheaded the OPEC+ agreement between OPEC and 10 non-OPEC producers led by Russia, which paved the way to coordinated oil output cuts that helped shore up oil prices after they fell to around $30/b in early 2016.

OPEC+ is in the midst of trimming output by 1.7 million b/d from global oil markets and is mulling a further 600,000 b/d cut.