OMAN - Profile - Mohammed Bin Hamad Bin Seif Al Romhi.

Appointed on Dec. 16, 1997 by Sultan Qaboos as Minister of Petroleum and Gas, Romhi (or Ramhi) has been active in trying to ensure that the oil price will be kept stable in case of a "regional emergency". At a meeting of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) oil producers in Muscat on Oct. 27, 2002, it was agreed that the member states would help each other in case of an emergency. In keeping with Oman's discreet style, no mention was made of the prospect of a US assault on Iraq. Rather, as Romhi put it, the ministers were not referring to specific events and/or political situations. "The regional emergency plan is to cover any shortfall, if there is any, from the member state," Al Romhi stated, adding: "Any emergency".

Romhi has played a key role behind the scenes to get OPEC and IPEC to co-operate. His IPEC role began on Jan. 18, 1998, as oil prices were falling rapidly in an unusually warm winter and a severe economic crisis in Asia. He urged fellow GCC oil ministers to take prompt action.

As the GCC failed to do so, he contacted fellow IPEC states. His efforts got the then Energy Minister of Mexico, Luis Tellez, to take the initiative and meet his Venezuelan counterpart so that they could forge a deal with Saudi Arabia. With Romhi active in the background, the ministers of Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela met in Riyadh in early March 1998 and reached a tripartite pact to defend prices within the framework of co-operation between OPEC and as many IPEC states as possible.

Although the pact prevented oil prices from collapsing for a while, the market was not convinced. Prices resumed their fall and collapsed in late 1998. By then, Romhi, Tellez and others had realised that their efforts would only succeed if Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed jointly to put their weight behind a more credible OPEC/IPEC price defence agreement.

With the help of his predecessor, Said Bin Ahmad Bin Said Al Shanfari who in December 1997 had gone into retirement at his own request but continued to assist Sultan Qaboos as an advisor, Romhi worked on a warming of relations between the oil ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia. That worked, as Tehran sent its Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi to Riyadh to offer the Saudi leaders Iran's full co-operation.

Kharrazi's visit led to an oil price defence deal based on a wide range of issues of mutual interests. As Romhi kept pushing in all directions behind the scenes, Algeria's energy minister stepped in. Russia and Norway were persuaded to co-operate. The March 12, 1999 agreement near the Hague committed OPEC and the four IPEC states to cut production further and to keep their price defence effort in force from April 1, 1999 to end-March 2000. The market became convinced and oil prices began to rise rapidly from mid-April.

Romhi renewed his efforts for price stability in late 2001 as the government was worried by the fall in oil prices after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the US, which caused a rapid decline in world oil demand. Currently, Romhi continues to work in the background to ensure that the market does not get badly affected in the event of a US military assault against Iraq.

A petroleum engineer in his 40s, Romhi's previous position was a professor of petroleum engineering at the Sultan Qaboos University. Before taking his new post, the ministry under Shanfari was in charge of both the petroleum and mining sectors.

In late 1997, the ministry was restricted to oil and gas. Shanfari went into retirement to concentrate on his family business, belonging to a prominent clan in Dhofar. But he remains at the disposal of Sultan Qaboos and since early 1998 has advised the ruler on matters related to the petroleum sector.

Like Shanfari, Romhi follows the Sultan's directives by keeping Oman in a co-operative relationship with OPEC and IPEC. Apart from the need to defend oil prices, the Sultan wants to see IPEC oil ministers again meeting with their OPEC counterparts to lobby on global issues affecting oil and gas.

Romhi is an advocate of Oman's diversification to natural gas, with Oman having become an important exporter of LNG. In May 2001, Romhi was among the petroleum ministers who attended in Tehran the first conference of the Gas Exporting Countries' Forum (GECF). The other ministers were from Algeria, Brunei, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia and Turkmenistan. Formed at the suggestion of Iran and Algeria, the GECF is a loose lobbying group in which no membership fee and no secretariat or base are involved.

Romhi works closely with powerful Commerce and Industry Minister Maqbool Bin Sultan, who is chairman of Oman Oil Company (OOC), and with the Minister of Economy, Finance and Development, Ahmad Makki who is also powerful and the deputy chairman of the Financial Affairs & Energy Resources Council.

Romhi gets a great deal of assistance from Salem Bin Mohammed Bin Shaaban Al Ojaily, who has been the undersecretary at the Petroleum and Gas Ministry since the 1970s, and is also chairman of Oman LNG. A calm, pleasant person in his late 50s or early 60s, he is pragmatic and has friends among most foreign E&P firm in Oman. Another key advisor is Ali Bin Abdullah Al Tamimi, also brought in by Romhi's predecessor Shanfari and a member of OOC's board of directors.

Maqbool Bin Ali Bin Sultan: The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Bin Sultan was appointed to this post in December 1991 which he has retained in all subsequent cabinet changes. Chairman of OOC, which is owned 100% by his ministry, Bin Sultan hails from the prominent and numerous Sultan clan of the Lanatiya Tribe. He plays a big role in the hydrocarbon sector, and expresses his views candidly. His ministry's Industry Division is in charge of major downstream projects to use Omani gas as feedstock.

Bin Sultan, who has the ear of the Sultan Qaboos, works in tandem with Petroleum and Gas Minister Romhi and with the Minister of Economy, Supervisor of the Finance Ministry and Deputy Chairman of the Financial Affairs & Energy Resources Council Ahmad Makki (see below). Bin Sultan signs all JV deals involving OOC. He also plays a very important role in the privatisation of the power sector, with gas-fired plants being built by local and foreign investors.

Bin Sultan's ministry and that of oil and gas have been behind two gas pipeline projects to supply the country's new industrial zones of Sohar in the north and Salalah in the south. Oman Gas Co., formed in 1999 with the government holding 80% and OOC holding 20%, now is the domestic marketer and distributor of gas and will be in charge of the two new pipelines.

Bin Sultan and former oil minister Shanfari were also behind the Industrial Bank of Oman (IBO), a private venture launched in October 1997 when it offered 40% of its equity on the Muscat Securities Market (MSM). IBO, which began operations in February 1998, has become a key backer of new industries, particularly those of the downstream sector for oil and gas. The founding shareholders include Shanfari Investment Co., Muscat Overseas Co., the Ajit Khimji Group of Companies, Orient Dawn, and Ali Redha Trading Co.

The Oman Centre for Investment Promotion and Export Development (Ociped) was created in late 1997 by Bin Sultan's ministry. It now acts as a conduit between investors, industrial and power projects and the government. Ociped has a major role in Oman's privatisation, focusing on power and desalination plants, gas-based industries and fisheries.

A strong advocate of a free market economy, Bin Sultan has backed the "Thatcherite society" of share-owners, to be achieved through widespread privatisation. Another of his priorities is the "Omanisation" programme. He was one of the key figures behind the amendment of the corporate tax laws, which Sultan Qaboos decreed in late October 1996.