Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud died on Friday and was succeeded by his half-brother Salman on the throne of the world’s biggest oil exporter.
King Abdullah, who was born in 1924, died at 1 a.m. in Riyadh, the royal court said in a statement. He became Saudi Arabia’s sixth king in August 2005 and was de facto ruler for almost a decade before that, after King Fahd was incapacitated by a stroke in 1996. Prince Muqrin, 69, another half-brother, has been named Crown Prince, the state-run Saudi Press Agency said. Oil prices surged after the announcement.
The transition “will be smooth,” said Ghanem Nuseibeh, founder of Cornerstone Global Associates, which advises clients on risk in the Middle East. When power starts moving to the next generation of the ruling family, “that’s when tension could start brewing,” he said by phone after the announcement.
Salman, 79, was named as crown prince in 2012 and takes over as ruler of the Arab world’s biggest economy amid turbulence across the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has joined the U.S. coalition against Islamic State and faces a growing threat from militant attacks within the kingdom, as well as unrest sweeping the Arab world outside its borders. Regional rival Iran and its Shiite allies are gaining influence, while plunging oil prices are curbing Saudi Arabia’s capacity to invest.

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