Saudi King Salman’s lavish tour of Asia, arriving in each country on a golden escalator with 400 tons of luggage, had a hardnosed marketing mission – to cement the kingdom’s place as leading oil supplier to the world’s biggest consumer region. The string of deals inked on his three-week tour to Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and China also point to a fresh strategy, one to increase Saudi leverage over refined product and petrochemical markets, known as the downstream sector. “Our strategy is about growth in the downstream,” said Amin Nasser, chief executive officer of state oil company Aramco, told Reuters on Sunday. “The growth in that sector is very important, and anything integrated between refining, petrochemical, with marketing and distribution, is of interest to us.” Saudi Arabia’s […]