Good morning. Christmas mode seems to be already on in the Kingdom, and we bring a light issue for you this morning with business grinding to a near halt.

Our big story today: We dive into the new financial oversight law and what it means for government and quasi-government institutions. The main change? FinMin will not have financial representatives hovering over public finances anymore, replacing the decades-old system with a mix of internal compliance and digital monitoring.

ALSO- We talked to Deloitte’s Hassan Malik on the 2034 World Cup as a litmus test for foreign investment in the Kingdom — and what investors would like to see in the years ahead of the mega event. Let’s dive in.

PSA-

Two draft regs are out on Istitlaa for public consultation:

Watch This Space

OIL — The kingdom is burning less oil this year: Domestic oil consumption fell 2.7% y-o-y in 9M to 2.4 mn bbl / d — marking the first decline outside Covid since 2018, Mees reports, citing Jodi data. Higher diesel prices, rising gas output, and faster renewables rollout are eating into oil burn, the largest slice of Saudi demand.

Lower domestic consumption reshaped the export mix: Total oil exports — crude plus products — averaged 7.54 mn bbl / d this year, up 329k bbl / d y-o-y, Mees cites Kpler data. However, crude exports rose by just 170k bbl / d to 6.12 mn bbl / d, leaving crude at a record-low 81% share of total exports.

Refineries ran harder this year, with throughputs averaging 2.78 mn bbl / d in the first nine months of the year, on pace for the highest annual level since 2018 and nearly 30% of crude production.

Why it matters? A structural drop in domestic demand gives flexibility, growing total product exports without destabilizing crude markets, and capturing downstream value when margins allow.

TECH — A big nod to digital transformation efforts: We now rank second worldwide in the GovTech Maturity Index, issued by the World Bank. Core government systems, public service delivery, and digital citizen engagement all scored above 90%, placing the Kingdom among the Very Advanced group.

Data Point

SAR 33 bn — the total spending by 15.1 mn domestic and international tourists in Riyadh during 9M 2025, an 18% y-o-y rise, the Tourism Ministry said on X.

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The Big Story Abroad

Oil prices ticked up in Asia this morning after US forces tried to tighten their blockade of oil tankers coming into and out of Venezuela. The US coast guard is reportedly pursuing in international waters a tanker that was heading into Venezuela. The development comes barely two days after it raided a Panama-flagged ship and two weeks after it seized a third.

It’s otherwise a particularly quiet morning in the global business press — markets seem already to be sliding into the Christmas week news slowdown. That has the business pages serving up year-end fare including:

We’re not sure 2025 is going to give up the ghost quite so easily, but … we’ll take it.

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