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  • From Oil Kingdom to Mineral Titan? Inside Saudi Arabia’s Ambitious Mining Revolution

    Saudi Arabia is striving to strike a balance between its oil and other mineral resources with the goal of trying to keep its energy dominance intact, something it has managed to do so far with regard to oil production. According to reports, the Kingdom wants to increase the GDP contribution of its mining industry to US $75 billion by 2035, a significant jump from the present day US $17 billion. The Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden), a key state-owned enterprise, plays a vital role in implementing the kingdom’s mining strategies, forming partnerships to develop mineral resources and managing major projects. To further boost mining initiatives, Saudi Arabia has introduced a $182 million exploration incentive program and issued 33 more mining licenses.

  • Saudi Arabia Cuts Oil Prices for Asia as Demand Concerns Persist

    Saudi Arabia has cut the official selling price for its crude oil for deliveries to Asia in January in a move that was largely expected amid depressed global prices. Saudi crude for delivery next month will be the cheapest in four years, according to Reuters columnist Clyde Russell, with the kingdom also cutting prices for deliveries to Europe and leaving prices for deliveries to the United States unchanged. Aramco lowered the official selling price for its flagship Arab Light blend from a $1.70 premium to the Oman/Dubai average for this month to a premium of $0.90 per barrel for January. Expectations for the price cut, as reported by Reuters last week, ranged between $0.70 and $0.90 per barrel.

  • SAMA announces launch of Samsung Pay in Saudi Arabia

    The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) has announced the launch of mobile payment service Samsung Pay in Saudi Arabia, to be carried out through the national payment system, Mada. In a statement picked up Argaam, SAMA noted that this move aligns with Saudi Vision 2030. It is also part of its ongoing efforts to bolster the Kingdom's digital payment ecosystem. Samsung Pay aims to provide a seamless and secure payment experience for users, enabling them to add and manage Mada cards and digital credit cards easily via the Samsung Wallet app.

  • Apple to open stores in Saudi Arabia, including ‘iconic’ outlet in Diriyah

    Apple’s retail expansion builds on its investments and activities in the country. Over the past five years, Apple has spent more than 10 billion Saudi riyals ($2.66 billion) with companies across the country, it said. It also opened the Apple Developer Academy in Riyadh in 2021 in partnership with the Saudi government, Tuwaiq Academy and Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University. The all-women academy offers training for coders, designers and entrepreneurs, and nearly 2,000 students have completed programming courses there. Apple’s physical presence remains central to its overall retail strategy, despite the popularity of online shopping channels. From its first outlets that opened in the US states of Virginia and California in 2001, Apple has a network of more than 530 outlets across 26 countries and territories.

  • Is Saudi Arabia’s box office boom over or set to rise again?

    In the years that followed Saudi Arabia’s reopening of cinemas in 2018, the country boasted arguably the most exciting and dynamic box-office market in the world. A cinema-building spree rapidly grew the country’s screen count to its current level of around 612. This helped Saudi leapfrog to the top of the Middle East market — the country accounts for an impressive 42% of region’s box office this year. In global terms, it is now the 15th biggest box-office market in the world, capable of delivering healthy returns for the right kind of film. Success stories include 2024 action thriller Bad Boys: Ride Or Die starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence — the fourth entry in Sony Pictures Entertainment’s franchise is not only the biggest film of the year in Saudi but the biggest ever in the territory, with a healthy $23.5m at the box office.

  • Saudi Arabia and France Agree to Enhance Cooperation in Hydrogen and Electricity Production From Renewable Resources

    Saudi Arabia and France have agreed to enhance multifaceted aspects of cooperation in the energy sector. Both countries have placed hydrogen and electricity produced from low emission and renewable resources at the core of their respective energy cooperation, according a joint communiqué issued following the meeting of Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and French Minister for Energy Transition Agnes Pannier-Runacher, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Additionally, both countries agreed to enhance cooperation in the field of electricity, and exchange experiences in the field of electricity generation from renewable energy resources, grid interconnection projects, as well as encouraging the participation of private sectors in power sector projects including generation, transmission, distribution, storage and network automation technologies.

  • ‘My Driver and I’ Reveals Saudi Arabia’s 1980s, ’90s Social Fabric and Director Ahd Kamel’s ‘Soul,’ Say Lead Actors

    It’s been a long ride to get Saudi multi-hyphenate Ahd Kamel‘s directorial debut “My Driver and I” – which is premiering at the Red Sea Film Festival – onto the big screen. Saudi actors Roula Dakheelallah and Mustafa Shehata, who co-star in the film, joined Variety’s Alex Ritman at the Variety Lounge presented by Film AlUla at Red Sea to speak about the drama, which provides a rare glimpse of Saudi society and social fabric in Jeddah during the 1980s and ’90s.  The film is inspired by Ahd Kamel’s real-life story, noted Dakheelallah, who plays Ahd’s alter-ego Salma, who grew up in a wealthy Jeddah family.

  • Saudi Arabia discovers 56-million-year marine fossils

    Saudi geological authorities unearthed ancient marine fossils that date back to some 56 million years, Anadolu Agency reports. In a statement, the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS) said the fossils were found in limestone rock formations in the Ras Al-Ru’us sedimentary area in northern Saudi Arabia. The fossils date back to the early Eocene period and include imprints and internal moulds of bony fish, which all help understand the prehistoric marine communities of the early Eocene epoch, according to the statement.

  • Inside Saudi Arabia’s plan to tame the desert and turn its capital into a cool green oasis

    They plan to plant seven-and-a-half million trees across the city and build numerous new parks and green spaces including one four times the size of Hyde Park. A new irrigation system using treated wastewater is being developed, and the building code is being rewritten taking inspiration from traditional local architecture to make new homes more energy efficient. Much is riding on the project’s success – making Riyadh a more appealing place to live to tempt in expats and foreign investment is a cornerstone of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman’s efforts to overhaul the country’s image and diversify the economy away from oil. And with millions of people suffering from extreme heat in cities around the world – increasingly relying on environmentally disastrous air conditioning – the lessons Saudi Arabia learns could be vital to averting the worst effects of climate change in the coming decades.

  • Saudi Arabia: Israel determined to sabotage Syria’s chance for stability

    Saudi Arabia said Monday that Israel’s seizure of a buffer zone in the Golan Heights shows its determination to sabotage Syria’s chance of restoring stability. Israeli forces announced over the weekend that they had deployed to the buffer zone, claiming that the move was to protect Israeli citizens. Despite Israel’s foreign minister saying the takeover was temporary, embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly came out and said that the Golan Heights would remain Israeli “for eternity.”