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  • Production Cuts Begin with Big Drop in Crude Oil Supply; Prices Rise
     

    Oil output from OPEC countries fell 530,000 barrels a day to 32.6 million a day last month, Bloomberg reports, in what amounts to the sharpest pullback since January 2017. The cut in supplies is a response by the group to a global glut of oil on the market and a falling price for oil on international indices […]

     
  • Saudia-Owned Flyadeal Selects Boeing for Expansion Fleet with $3.5b in New Planes
     

    Saudi Arabian discount carrier Flyadeal will switch from an all-Airbus SE fleet to Boeing jets after ordering 30 737 Max narrow-body planes worth $3.5 billion at list prices, according to a Bloomberg report. The Chicago, Illinois-based Boeing has been in competition with France-based Airbus for the order since mid-2016, according to the report. The airline committed to […]

     
  • Saudi Arabia Seeks Balanced Budget by 2023 – Al Jadaan
     

    Saudi Arabia’s finance minister told Reuters on Wednesday he was “unconcerned with current oil prices impacting spending plans in 2019″ and the government still aims to close its budget deficit by 2023 – though the target is not set in stone. The government unveiled a $295 billion budget on Tuesday, the kingdom’s largest, with a […]

     
  • Saudi Arabia’s Collections from VAT Double Expectations in 2018; Foreign Investment Rebounds
     

    Foreign investment into the Kingdom and VAT collections both more than doubled in 2018 over the previous year, government officials revealed this week as information regarding the Kingdom’s 2019 budget are published. Reuters reports that the Kingdom saw a rebound in foreign investment into Saudi Arabia in 2018 to 13 billion riyals ($3.5 billion), more than […]

     
  • Breakthrough Ceasefire Agreements Reached over Yemen Ports as U.S. Senate Rebukes Trump
     

    The internationally recognized Yemeni government and the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement agreed to a ceasefire around the city of Hodeidah and to remove troops from the area in a potential major turning point for the three year old conflict, according to reports. The agreement was reached at U.N.-brokered talks in Sweden. The port, which is currently under Houthi control, […]

     
  • Senate Set to Vote On Measure to End U.S. Support Saudi Arabia in Yemen as Pompeo Pens Op-Ed Touting ‘Vital Partnership’
     

    The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on legislation as early as Wednesday that would end U.S. involvement in the Saudi Arabia-backed war in Yemen, as the Trump Administration continues to publicly express support for the U.S.-Saudi relationship. Politico reports that the bill introduced by Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) “has gained support since […]

     
  • Saudi Aramco Aims to Invest $150b to Become Gas Exporter – CEO
     

    Saudi Aramco’s gas expansion strategy needs $150 billion (117.55 billion pounds) worth of investments over the next decade as the company plans to increase output and become an exporter, Reuters reports, citing CEO Amin Nasser’s comments at an industry event in Dubai. Aramco is pushing ahead with its conventional and unconventional gas exploration and production program […]

     
  • Saudi Aramco CEO: ‘We Need a Major Acquisition For Us to Be In Different Markets Quickly’
     

    In an interview with Bloomberg, Saudi Aramco’s CEO Amin Nasser said the company is earmarking $500 billion to invest over the next 10 years, including $160 billion for natural gas developments and $100 billion for chemicals projects. The interview, given in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, said the planned spending would come on top of the already planned purchase of a […]

     
  • King Salman Delivers Opening Speech at Shoura Council
     

    King Salman gave his annual speech at the opening of the third year of the Shoura Council’s seventh session on Monday and discussed a number of regional and local issues. The King urged the international community on Monday to halt Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and reiterated the kingdom’s support for U.N. efforts to […]

     
  • FII Kicks Off in Riyadh
     

    The Future Investment Initiative (FII) kicked off today at the Ritz Carlton, Riyadh with a standing room only crowd despite an exodus of CEOs and other top executives in recent weeks. The PIF-organized event went forward as planned despite questions regarding the event’s timing, and saw a large crowd at the start of the event. The event […]

     

MUST-READS

  • Should Expats Move to Saudi Arabia? Salaries, Housing, Schooling Issues to Know

    “There are infrastructure challenges and that’s where the teething issues are going to be, making sure there’s enough housing available, water, whether the road system can take it and so on,” said Metin Mitchell, who heads an executive recruitment firm that has been working in Saudi Arabia since 1995.

  • Saudi Arabia will mine minerals, but can it extract maximum added value?

    Yet Riyadh is well positioned to cash in on rising global demand for copper, a critical conductor for electricity. “The world has never produced anywhere close to this much copper in such a short time frame,” rating agency S&P Global noted. Renewables-based grids, which accounted for 83% of the world’s new electricity generation capacity in 2022, are copper and aluminum-intensive. Since 2010, the amount of minerals needed for any new power generation unit has jumped by 50%.

  • Saudi Arabia will mine minerals, but can it extract maximum added value?

    Sylvain Eckert, head of metals and mining at the French-based Natixis Corporate & Investment Bank, said that Saudi Arabia has not yet conducted explorations or feasibility studies, "but there is quite a lot of potential for discoveries.” He told Al-Monitor that mining investors have mixed views, while the quality of deposits will need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

  • Could Riyadh be the Middle East’s next culinary capital?

    Over the last three years, a multitude of fine dining restaurants have opened in the Saudi capital, coinciding with Saudi Arabia’s grand social and economic transformation spearheaded by Vision 2030. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious reform plan aims to increase household spending on cultural and entertainment activities to 6 percent, up 2.9 percent from when the Vision was unveiled in 2016.

  • Saudis are draining Arizona to feed their cows? Not exactly

    Tronstad estimates that of all the water used to irrigate farmland in Arizona, exported alfalfa accounts for 2% to 4.6% of it – or 121,000 acre-feet to 202,000 acre-feet in 2022. That’s not insignificant. The city of Phoenix typically delivers a little more than 300,000 acre-feet of water to taps each year, for comparison. But considering that agriculture accounts for about 70% of water use statewide, exported alfalfa represents just a few drops in that bucket.

  • Inside story: Is China about to host Iranian, Saudi chief diplomats?

    After their fourth contact in less than three weeks, the foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to meet “in the coming days.” After ambiguity over the location of the gathering, Amwaj.media has learned, China has emerged as one likely option. The slow but steady movement towards a face-to-face encounter between the chief diplomats comes in the wake of the Mar. 10 announcement by Riyadh and Tehran that diplomatic ties will be resumed within two months. The Kingdom cut ties with the Islamic Republic in 2016 in response to the storming of its diplomatic facilities by Iranian protesters over the execution of a dissident Saudi Shiite cleric.

  • Where next for Saudi Arabia after Herve Renard’s exit?

    Renard’s name had been linked with the vacant French women’s national team role, but few really expected he would leave his job in Saudi Arabia, where he had achieved so much and stood to achieve so much more. With qualification for the 2026 World Cup due to begin later this year, and the Asian Cup, for which Saudi Arabia are one of the favorites, in January and February of next year, it is far from an ideal time to be losing your coach.

  • China and Saudi Arabia are getting closer. Should the US be worried?

    Analysts, however, say that the Middle East is unlikely to become an arena for US-Chinese rivalry, given Beijing’s economy-oriented focus and its aversion to playing regional politics. The Saudi-China relationship is therefore unlikely to become a full-blown alliance. Saudi Arabia is China’s biggest supplier of crude, and China is the biggest destination of Saudi oil exports. The kingdom’s economy is nonetheless tied to the US as its currency is pegged to the dollar and the sale of its oil is conducted in that currency. Saudi Arabia’s defense infrastructure is also heavily reliant on American equipment.

  • Room For One More? Saudi Moves In On Gulf Aviation Market

    This month Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, unveiled Riyadh Air, the new airline which is intended to transform the capital into "a gateway to the world", according to state media. Two days later, officials said Riyadh Air and Saudia, the kingdom's existing flag-carrier based in Jeddah, would purchase 78 Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets.

  • Life in Kurdistan: A Tale of Two Wars?

    Since the Gulf War, U.S. actions in northern Iraq have limited both internal and external sources of instability, promoting Iraqi Kurdistan’s autonomy and helping to lay the groundwork for the relative safety and prosperity it enjoys today. From 2003, Kurdish security forces were largely able to control their borders with the rest of Iraq and deal effectively with terrorist threats. Spared from the conflict afflicting the rest of Iraq, in 2008, 56% of residents within Iraq’s Kurdish region reported feeling safe walking alone at night in their city or area, 13 percentage points higher than in the rest of the country.