A growing security premium threatens Saudi Arabia’s investment project

While there was no official comment from Aramco, the kingdom’s energy ministry confirmed the strike had caused a limited fire and no injuries, though it was unclear whether the building in the eastern city of Dhahran had been hit directly by a missile or by falling debris. Authorities also reported drones and missiles were intercepted and destroyed near the capital, Riyadh, and the country’s southern region. As the kingdom’s conflict with the Iran-backed Houthis intensifies, questions are mounting over whether its much-vaunted Vision 2030 is increasingly out of reach. For a country whose future hinges on diversifying away from oil and attracting foreign investment to help it do so, the spillover effects of the conflict pose a significant setback to its ambitions. “The events of recent weeks are serious,” Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman told the World Petroleum Energy Congress in Riyadh on Monday. “Our response must be equally serious while remaining focused on the decades ahead; Vision 2030 must continue, investment must continue.” Exactly what a “serious response” entails remains unclear, but what is immediately apparent is that investor sentiment has already been rattled. The CEOs of Shell, TotalEnergies, BP, and ExxonMobil had all been due…