SAUDI ARABIA - Saud Al-Faisal.

Born in 1942, Foreign Minister Prince Saud is also among key decision makers in matters relating to the petroleum sector, being a member of the Supreme Council (see Gas Market Trends). To boost foreign investment in the kingdom his ministry in 2005 instructed all Saudi diplomatic missions abroad to speed up the process of granting visas. Prince Saud is particularly close to King Abdullah. All CEOs of foreign oil companies who have made gas development proposals since late 1998 have met with Prince Saud in his capacity then as chairman of a higher committee on the Saudi Gas Opening. But that opening ended in mid-2003. Since then the petroleum ministry has offered vast areas for gas E&P in the Rub' Al Khali region (see Gas Market Trends No. 13).

Prince Saud took up the foreign affairs portfolio after his father, King Faisal, was assassinated in late March 1975 by a radical half-nephew. (Faisal as king used to be foreign minister, as well as prime minister, and he had held that post since the 1930s when he founded the foreign affairs ministry in Jeddah).

Ali Ibrahim Al-Na'imi: Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Na'imi was appointed to this post on Aug. 2, 1995, replacing Shaikh Hisham al-Nazer who had served in the government for 30 years. Until then, Na'imi was president of Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco), a post he held from 1984. Na'imi has been retained in all cabinet reshuffles since 1995. In late 2002, as he reviewed his achievements during two four-year terms in the cabinet, Na'imi was asked whether he would serve for another four years. He said: "If I was in charge, I would not want anybody in the cabinet for more than eight years" (see Vol. 61, DT No. 17). But he remains in this post.

The state's takeover of Arabian American Oil Co. (Aramco) had in theory occurred in 1976. It took effect in 1980 when John Kelberer resigned as chairman and CEO of Aramco. He was succeeded by Na'imi, the first Saudi to hold such a position in the world's largest oil producing firm. During the early 1990s Na'imi supervised Saudi Aramco's integration, with the NOC absorbing Samarec in 1993, and helped in the pursuit of downstream expansions overseas, mainly in the US and Asia. All this was done in a businesslike manner.

Na'imi was well suited for the task. Coming from outside the tribal and sectarian frameworks of the elite, he is a Shi'ite beholden to the top leadership - i.e., King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan. For most of his life, he has been an Aramco man. With limited experience in international oil politics, Na'imi has quickly proved to be a good oil diplomat. He has raised his profile during OPEC's ministerial meetings. He has played the key role in OPEC's oil price defence efforts since early 1999, with crude oil prices having fallen steeply from late 1997 to then. But the situation in the subsequent years changed as capacity shortages across the world's petroleum industry caused crude oil prices to rise sharply, particularly since late 2002 when Venezuelan oil production stopped because of general strikes. Now capacity shortages have become a serious problem (see OMT of this week).

The Saudi role in OPEC, always guided by the king, is also being played in the background through Na'imi's powerful deputy, the ministry's Undersecretary for Petroleum Affairs Prince Abdul-Aziz ibn Salman, appointed to the post on July 4, 1995.

Na'imi is a nice, simple and highly intelligent man. His gentle leadership has made an imprint on his subordinates. Known for his reserved and contemplative nature, he is a rational thinker and pragmatism is one of his strong points. He has delegated powers within both the ministry and Saudi Aramco's top management.

Na'imi was born in 1935 to a poor Shi'ite family in ar-Rakah, in the Eastern Province. As a child he used to tend to his father's flock of sheep. He started working for Aramco in 1947, at the age of 12, as an office boy. Soon his intelligence and sense of dedication attracted the attention of US executives. Without schooling, he quickly learned to speak English and studied from whatever books or casual tutoring he could get in his free time.

In 1951, one of the US executives recommended that Na'imi be sent to a proper school. He was given two years of full-time schooling sponsored by Aramco. There he excelled. He was given the job of a foreman. In late 1953 he became an assistant geologist at Aramco's Exploration Department. After three years of work combined with self-education, Na'imi was sent for higher studies. In 1956 he went to the International College in Beirut and later to the American University of Beirut, under company sponsorship. Then Na'imi was sent to the US. In 1962 he received a BS in geology from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. In 1963 he received an MA from Stanford University in the same subject, with emphasis on subterranean water science and geo-economics.

Backed by experience in field work and apprenticeship under noted US geologists, Na'imi was prepared for a brilliant career. He had excellent contacts among US executives at Aramco. Back in Dhahran in 1963, he became a hydrologist and geologist at Aramco's Exploration Dept. From 1967 to 1969, he worked in the company's Economics and PR Depts, and at the Abqaiq Producing Division. Between 1972-1975 he was assistant manager of the Producing Dept., manager of the Southern Area Producing Dept. and manager of the Northern Area Producing Dept. He finished an executive programme in business administration at Columbia University in 1974. In 1975 he became vice president for production and water injection. He was made senior VP in July 1978, in charge of oil operations. In 1979 he completed an advanced management programme at Harvard. He joined Aramco's board of directors in 1980, the year this company was taken over by the government, the first Saudi from within the company to reach that post. In 1982 he became first executive VP for operations. In 1984 he became president. In 1988 he was made CEO.

Na'imi was also made chairman of the board of Saudi Petroleum International Inc. (a unit set up in 1988 for liaison with buyers of Saudi crude oil in the Western Hemisphere); a director on the board of Saudi Refining Inc. of Houston (the Saudi-owned partner of Shell in Motiva Enterprise - see OMT No. 16); and a director on the board of Ssangyong Oil Refining Co. (South Korea's third largest refining and marketing company in which Saudi Aramco acquired 35% in 1991 and now called S-Oil).

In late September 2005, Na'imi announced that the kingdom will almost double its proven reserves of crude oil. "We will soon be able to boost our reserves by 200,000m barrels using the latest technology", he told the 18th World Petroleum Congress (WPC) in Johannesburg, adding: "We are further encouraged that there are vast areas of the kingdom that have yet to be explored. This leads us to say with confidence that Saudi Arabia's proven reserves will expand significantly in the years and decades ahead".

Na'imi's comments were seen as a counter to widely publicised claims made by the US investment banker Matthew Simmons that the kingdom's oil production had reached its peak due to the maturity of its fields. A London-based oil consultant was in early October 2005 quoted as saying: "It is difficult to prove or disprove the claim [of new Saudi reserves]. However, what is significant is the scale of the reserves. There is increasing pressure [on Saudi Arabia] from the West, particularly the US, to be more transparent... the announcement is more of a supply-security issue".

A new oil database has been prepared with the help of seven major energy organisations and nearly 95 oil producing and consuming states, including Saudi Arabia. It has been part of a Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI) by the Riyadh-based International Energy Forum (IEF) and other organisations. IEF Secretary-General Ambassador Arne Walther in Riyadh on Sept. 24, 2005, was quoted as saying: "The new database will promote data sharing and market transparency". He said IEF was co-ordinating with major energy organisations to release the JODI World Database (see down17SaudiWhoOct24-05).

For the royal family, Na'imi is a kind of symbol proving to the people that a self-made man in the kingdom can rise to a top position. It is a way of showing the kingdom is maturing, transcending sectarian outlooks among its people. In 1988, on his confirmation as president of Saudi Aramco, King Fahd gave him one million riyals as a personal gift, plus a plot of land and various allowances to raise his family's standard of living.

In an interview in New York, Na'imi was on Sept. 28, 2007, quoted as admitting that oil markets were in turmoil. But he underlined Saudi Arabia's role in helping to moderate oil price movements. He recalled that the kingdom raised its crude oil output 3.1m b/d during the first Gulf War in early 1991, when production in Iraq and Kuwait dropped 5.3m b/d. It was crucial in balancing the global markets then. With geo-politics occupying centre stage, the Saudi role would remain crucial to the global well-being.