Report: US oil companies to return to Saudi Arabia

The US daily "The Washington Post" said on Wednesday that seven US companies are now negotiating with Saudi Arabia to return to the kingdom in order to develop the energy sector there.

The paper quoted industrialists and sources close to the US government as saying that the Saudi deputy prime minister and chairman of the National Guard, Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, held talks away from the limelight with the representatives of the US companies Mobile, Exxon, Texaco, Chevron, Atlantic Richfield, Conoco and Philips Petroleum at the house of the Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan.

One participant in the meeting said that the US industrialists called for providing "recommendations and proposals" about the role that might be played by their companies in exploiting oil and natural gas fields in Saudi Arabia.