Nathaniel Kern - Work On Saudi Arabia

Work On Saudi Arabia

Kern has organized a series of senior-level U.S. delegations to Saudi Arabia since 2000.

Beginning in 1997, he worked closely with the Government of Saudi Arabia in laying the groundwork for the Saudi Gas Initiative aimed at opening Saudi Arabia’s hydrocarbon resources to foreign investment. He also worked with the U.S. companies participating in the subsequent proposals on developing major gas projects. Kern's role in the Initiative is documented in David Ottaway's new book, The King's Messenger.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, Kern worked with major contractors from around the world in responding to tenders for the supply of power generation and water desalination equipment to the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) of Saudi Arabia. He accompanied the then-Governor of SWCC on a visit to Japan in 1975 to encourage Japanese shipyards, then suffering from a lack of tanker-building business in the wake of constrained oil demand, to enter into the business of manufacturing large-scale, multi-stage flash desalination plants. In 1977, he assisted Hitachi Zosen in negotiating a technical assistance and patent license agreement with Westinghouse Electric for MSF desalination technology, and subsequently in winning major contracts. In the early 1990s, he assisted U.S. companies in settling contractual disputes with the Saudi Government, including Westinghouse’s claims on the Hail and Qassim Gas Turbine power plants.