Fund"s CEO Kirill Dmitriev leads a delegation of more than 20 Russian business figures to the Kingdom The delegation discussed projects in oil refining, petrochemical, gas chemical and oilfield services RIYADH: Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF said on Wednesday it would significantly boost its investments deals with Saudi Arabia in 2019. The fund’s CEO Kirill Dmitriev led a delegation of more than 20 Russian business figures to the Kingdom to discuss new projects. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih met Dmitriev in Riyadh and expressed his happiness on the progress they made in the talks and the cooperation between the two countries. “Its not only commercial cooperation, but we are also working on scientific research, and we have opened a research center in Moscow University,” Al-Falih said. The minister said the Russian delegation will also meet officials from Saudi Basic Industries Corporation SABIC and mining company Ma’aden among other companies during their three day visit to the Kingdom. The delegation discussed projects in oil refining, petrochemical, gas chemical and oilfield services sectors, a Russian Direct Investment Fund statement said. Al-Falih added that the Russian side has started a rubber plant project in Al-Jubail with Total and Novomet. RDIF already has a $10 billion investment partnership with the Saudi Public Investment Fun (PIF), with more than $2 billion already invested in projects. “We extend our cooperation not only on oil cuts but to cooperate in oil services, technology, LG and petrochemicals,” Dmitriev said. “We believe Saudi Aramco can be one of the greatest partners of Russia.” The CEO said they were continuing to cooperate with PIF in Saudi Arabia through a number of energy investments. Russian companies are also keen to invest in the Kingdom’s planned $500 billion mega-city NEOM. “We have companies that have interest to invest in NEOM, we would like to build a port in NEOM, it can be a big port,” Dmitriev said.