King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud dismissed the country’s oil minister Ali al-Naimi who was in charge since 1995, Reuters reports.
Ali al-Naimi will be succeeded by Khalid al-Falih who had previously served as the Saudi Arabian health minister. Nine officials changed their positions during the reshuffle. The royal decree also renamed the Oil Ministry into the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources.
On April 25, Saudi Arabia unveiled the Vision 2030 reform program, a long-term plan to rebuild the Kingdom’s economy during the next 15 years. Reforms will be introduced and implemented regardless of global crude oil prices. According to the program, the share of oil exports in GDP will be raised to 50 percent from 16 percent.
Due to a slump in oil prices, Saudi Arabia ended the year of 2015 with a record deficit of $98 billion (367 billion Saudi riyals).
