The appointment of Al-Rumayyan, already an Aramco board member and a key adviser to powerful Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, will seperate the Ministry of Energy from Aramco and avoid conflicts of interest as the company prepares for the upcoming initial public offering, according to a source familiar with the thinking behind the decision, reports Riad Hamade, Matthew Martin, and Anthony Dipaola in Bloomberg.
“I suspect they want to accelerate the IPO timeline,” said Helima Croft, chief commodities strategist at RBC Capital Markets. The Saudi authorities want to “bring a sense of urgency to the issue as this is a big signature initiative of Crown Prince Mohammed.”
