China and Saudi Arabia have signed preliminary deals that could be worth as much as $65 billion if finalized, Xinhua reports . The news came on the first day of a four-day visit by Saudi King Salman to China. China’s Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Ming said that President Xi Jinping and King Salman inked a total 14 cooperation agreements, including a memorandum of understanding on 35 projects for “production capacity and investment cooperation”. Among the industries that the agreements cover are oil production, petrochemicals, and even space. China is a crucial market for Saudi oil, and the king’s visit is widely seen as an attempt to secure future exports, preferably under long-term contracts, which is the standard approach of the Kingdom toward crude oil exports. Outside oil exports, Saudi Arabia is also looking for opportunities to expand its refining and chemical production markets, Reuters notes , as part of […]