Over the weekend, Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman named Khalid al-Falih as the nation’s new energy minister. The change marks the first transition at the position since 1995.
For U.S. oil investors, the impact of Falih’s appointment on the global oil market remains uncertain, but some producers see any change as a potential positive.
The policies of Falih’s predecessor, 80-year-old Ali al-Naimi, led to the global collapse in oil prices and the current oversupplied market. Oil investors are hoping that a fresh face and perspective could signal a change in Saudi policy.
“He totally underestimated the resilience of the shale producers and their ability to achieve cost efficiency,” said Praveen Kumar, executive director of the University of Houston Global Energy Management Institute.
“They thought it would take six months and that timing was completely off… Naimi’s been there for decades. Getting him out allows the new power centers in Saudi Arabia to devise the long-term strategy for production and its role in OPEC,” Kumar noted.
Falih has at least a tangential tie to U.S. oil territory: He obtained his degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M in 1982.
It’s doubtful that Falih’s Aggie spirit will impact his oil policies. In the past, Saudi Arabia has focused…
Click here to continue reading
Want to learn more about how to profit off the stock market? Or maybe you just want to be able to look sophisticated in front of your coworkers when they ask you what you are reading on your Kindle, and you’d prefer to tell them “Oh, I’m just reading a book about stock market analysis,” rather than the usual “Oh, I’m just looking at pics of my ex-girlfriend on Facebook.” For these reasons and more, check out my book, Beating Wall Street with Common Sense. I don’t have a degree in finance; I have a degree in neuroscience. You don’t have to predict what stocks will do if you can predict what traders will do and be one step ahead of them. I made a 400% return in the stock market over five years using only basic principles of psychology and common sense. Beating Wall Street with Common Sense is now available on Amazon, and tradingcommonsense.com is always available on your local internet!
