Oil minister fired in Saudi reshuffle

Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Saturday replaced his veteran oil minister and the central bank governor in a major reshuffle of senior positions a week after announcing big economic reforms.

King Salman also named new ministers to run the water, transport, commerce, social affairs, health and pilgrimage portfolios and restructured some ministries in a shake-up focused on areas where the government has promised change.

The most eye-catching change was the creation of a new energy, industry and natural resources ministry under Khaled al-Falih.

Mr Falih was moved from the post of health minister to replace Ali al-Naimi, who has run the energy policy of the world's biggest crude oil exporter since 1995.

The water and electricity ministry was broken up, with the water portfolio added to a new environment, water and agriculture ministry, and electricity added to the new energy ministry.

Major changes were also made to the kingdom's economic leadership, with Majed al-Qasbi named head of the new commerce and investment ministry, and Ahmed al-Kholifey made governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, the central bank.

Tawfiq al-Rabeeah, formerly commerce minister, was appointed health minister, Suleiman al-Hamdan was appointed transport minister, and the pilgrimage ministry was renamed the Haj and Umrah ministry. The royal decrees also merged the ministries of labour and of social affairs into a new department, and created a new commission for recrea-tion and culture.