Oil Companies in Talks With Saudi Arabia

Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Amoco, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, TotalFinaElf and other oil companies may sign multibillion-dollar gas projects with Saudi Arabia as early as April, the country’s foreign minister said. Senior executives from the world’s biggest energy companies, including John Browne of BP and Lee Raymond of Exxon, met separately over the weekend with the kingdom’s Petroleum Ministerial Committee, chaired by Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal and including Oil Minister Ali Ibrahim Naimi, the state-owned SPA news agency reported. Saudi Arabia wants foreign companies to invest as much as $100 billion over 20 years in projects that would convert its power industry, which currently runs on oil, to natural gas. This in turn would drive the country’s industrial development. The companies want more information on the projects to sharpen the focus of their proposals, said Shell spokesman Patrick Briggs.