Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund pours $1bn into stakes in 4 European oil firms

I posted the headline from the Wall Street Journal here:

• Dow Jones report Saudis are buying stakes in European oil majors such as Shell

WSJ citing "according to people familiar with the matter"

More now:

• Saudi Arabia's sovereign-wealth fund has amassed stakes worth roughly $1 billion in four major European oil companies
• buying assets it perceives as undervalued in a market depressed by the coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices
• stakes in Equinor AS A, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Total SA and Eni SpA
• bought in recent weeks
• the fund may continue to make stock purchases

That "buying assets it perceives as undervalued in a market depressed by the coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices". You might recall from a few weeks ago OPEC+ failed to agree on maintaining output cuts and Saudi Arabia ramping production higher and thus sending the price of oil plummeting. The cynical amongst us might even suggest this was all part of a plan?