Saudi Aramco said to make leadership changes ahead of IPO

kuwait city — Saudi Arabian Oil Co has promoted eight executives to top positions, including a senior vice-president for downstream operations, as it seeks to double refining capacity and expand natural gas and chemical businesses ahead of what could be the world biggest share sale.

The world’s largest oil exporter, known as Saudi Aramco, appointed two senior vice-presidents, six vice-presidents and two associate general counsels, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg that was dated Sunday and signed by chief executive officer Amin Nasser. The appointments are effective May 1. Saudi Aramco declined to comment, and the company website later confirmed the appointments of the two senior vice-presidents.

As part of the leadership changes, Abdulaziz Al Judaimi, the chairman of Motiva Enterprises, which owns the largest US refinery, was appointed senior vicepresident to head Aramco’s downstream business, according to the Aramco website. Nabeel Al Mansour was appointed senior vicepresident, general counsel and corporate secretary. The company has four other senior vice-presidents, according to the website.

Aramco has announced plans to invest in the refining industry in the US after the breakup of its 19year Motiva Enterprises refining partnership with Royal Dutch Shell. Under terms of the agreement, Aramco retained full ownership of the Port Arthur refinery in Texas and 24 distribution terminals.

Yasser Mufti, Ahmad Al Khowaiter, Abdullah Al Baiz, Abdullah Al Ghamdi, Abdul Hameed Al Rushaid and Yousef Al Ulyan were promoted to vice-president, according to the memo.

Mufti, a former Opec governor for Saudi Arabia, will head the corporate planning unit, while Al Khowaiter will be responsible for Aramco’s technology push, according to a person familiar with the matter who didn’t want to be identified because the issue isn’t public yet. Al Rushaid will lead Aramco’s multibillion-dollar drilling department, Al Baiz the gas operations, Al Ghamdi engineering services and Al Ulyan information technology, the person said.

Ziad Al Murshed, who was responsible for developing business transactions including mergers and acquisitions at Aramco, according to his LinkedIn Corp. profile, will replace Mufti as executive director of new business development, the person said. —Bloomberg