Al Falih loses key role in Saudi Aramco

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih has lost his role as chairman of the board for Saudi Aramco, Al Falih announced on Twitter Monday.

Al Falih will step down from his role as chairman in Aramco’s attempt to avoid a conflict of interest in the runup to its much-hyped, much-anticipated IPO. Now Aramco will be officially separated from the Ministry of Energy, Bloomberg reported.

Al Falih’s replacement as chairman of the board is Yasser Bin Osman Al-Rumayan, current head of the Saudi Wealth Fund.

Falih later congratulated Rumayyan on the appointment on his official twitter feed, saying that it was “an important step to prepare the company for the public offering.”

Aramco, the world’s top oil producing company, is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) of up to 5% by 2020-2021. Selling a stake in Aramco has been a centrepiece of Vision 2030, a plan to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil championed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Rumayyan, a former investment banker, was appointed managing director of the Public Investment Fund in September 2015, after a serving as advisor at the royal court for a brief period before that. He joined Saudi Aramco’s board in 2016.