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Saudi to Provide $300m Export Funding for Bahrain's Noga

The signing of the agreement between the Saudi Fund for Development and the National Oil and Gas Authority. Asharq All-Awsat Arabic
The signing of the agreement between the Saudi Fund for Development and the National Oil and Gas Authority. Asharq All-Awsat Arabic
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Saudi to Provide $300m Export Funding for Bahrain's Noga

The signing of the agreement between the Saudi Fund for Development and the National Oil and Gas Authority. Asharq All-Awsat Arabic
The signing of the agreement between the Saudi Fund for Development and the National Oil and Gas Authority. Asharq All-Awsat Arabic

The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) has signed a financing agreement worth USD300 million (SAR1.11 billion) with the National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA).

The agreement was signed, in a ceremony held under the patronage of Oil Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa, to fund Saudi exports of NOGA for projects in oil and gas sectors. It was signed by NOGA holding acting chief executive Dr. Dhafer al-Jalahma and SFD vice-president and managing director Dr. Khalid bin Sulaiman al-Khudairi.

Under the agreement, the fund will provide export credit and insurance for Saudi national exports to encourage domestic economic diversification and contribute to development within Bahrain. The minister said the agreement aims to finance the needs of Saudi manufacturing companies to participate in supplying to the oil and gas industry and projects in Bahrain.

Sheikh Mohammed said that the past period witnessed restless efforts and several initiatives by oil companies affiliated with NOGA that resulted in many oil projects, including updating Bahrain oilfield refinery that is considered the biggest with a capacity of 358,000 barrels worth USD6 billion.

Khudairi affirmed that Saudi-Bahraini ties are solid, hailing strong relations between SFD and Bahrain in development and commercial fields.

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Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
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Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he will nominate prominent investor Scott Bessent as US Treasury secretary, a key cabinet position with vast influence over economic, regulatory and international affairs.

"I am most pleased to nominate Scott Bessent to serve as the 79th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States," Trump said in a statement released on Truth Social. "Scott is widely respected as one of the world's foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists."

Wall Street has been closely watching who Trump will pick, especially given his plans to remake global trade through tariffs and extend and potentially expand the raft of tax cuts enacted during his first term, Reuters reported
The choice came after days of deliberations by Trump as he sorted through a shifting list of candidates. Bessent spent day after day at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida providing economic advice, sources said, a proximity to the president-elect that may have helped him prevail.
Other names that had been floated included Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Marc Rowan and former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh. Investor John Paulson had also been a leading candidate, but dropped out, while Wall Street veteran Howard Lutnick, another contender, was appointed as head of the Commerce Department.
Bessent, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production, as noted in a recent opinion piece he wrote for The Wall Street Journal.
The market's surge after Trump's election victory, he wrote, signaled investor expectations of "higher growth, lower volatility and inflation, and a revitalized economy for all Americans."
"Bessent has been on the side of less aggressive tariffs," said Oxford Economics' Ryan Sweet, adding that picking him makes the steep tariffs Trump proposed on the campaign trail less likely.
Bessent follows other financial luminaries who have taken the job, including former Goldman Sachs executives Robert Rubin, Hank Paulson and Steven Mnuchin, Trump's first Treasury chief. Janet Yellen, the current secretary and first woman in the job, previously chaired the Federal Reserve and White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, Bessent's home state, said in a statement: "President Trump's economic agenda is in good hands with Scott Bessent. I look forward to working closely with Scott and President Trump to lower inflation and create the golden age of prosperity for the American people."