Saudi Arabia replaced drop in Iran's oil exports, says Prince Mohammed

Saudi Arabia is fulfilling promises to compensate a drop in Iranian oil supplies due to the US sanctions, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg in an interview at the Royal Court.

“The request that America made to Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries is to be sure that if there is any loss of supply from Iran, that we will supply that. And that happened," he said.

The Kingdom currently exports as much as two barrels for any barrel that disappeared from Iran recently.

The Saudi oil output stands currently at 10.7 million barrels per day. Riyadh can pump further 1.3 million bpd from its reserves if the market needs.

Commenting on foreign inflows, Prince Mohammed said the Kingdom's investments are "on track" with a 90 percent surge in foreign direct investments (FDIs) during H1 2018.

Meanwhile, Prince Mohammed added he expects the Kingdom's unemployment rate to start declining from 2019 ahead of reaching 7 percent by 2030, in line with the Saudi Vision.

For Neom project, Prince Mohammed said he is pushing to have Neom Rivera city complete in 2019, instead of 2020, adding that the mega project will be ready in 2025. 

"I believe we will hear a lot of good stories, one of them we will hear about in February 2019. A new investor will create something new there. We are working on the final details. We are getting his final approval," he added.