Al Naimi may be on his way out

Abu Dhabi: This is could be the last Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) meet for Saudi Arabia’s powerful oil minister Ali Al Naimi, analysts said.

“He had his wings clipped by the restructuring of Saudi Aramco including separating it from the oil ministry. What is the oil ministry without Saudi Aramco?” said Dr Mamdouh G Salameh, an international oil economist and consultant to World Bank on energy.

He said that Al Naimi could be replaced by Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Salman, the king’s son who is number 2 in the Saudi delegation to Opec.

Born in Saudi Arabia’s east just as oil was discovered there, Al Naimi tended sheep before starting as an errand boy at Aramco at the age of 12 in 1947, The Wall Street Journal reported.

He studied in the US and then rejoined the company, marching quickly through the ranks of what became known as Saudi Aramco. He became president in 1984 and chief executive officer in 1988. He was named oil minister in 1995 by then Saudi Arabia King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud.

Ali Al Naimi came in for criticism for not cutting production at last year’s meet in Vienna. He strongly denied that there is any conspiracy behind the move and blamed the increased production from non-Opec countries like Russia and the US for the price slide.

A favourite of journalists, he recently expressed his annoyance with media people following him when he goes on a jog in Vienna during Opec meetings.