Abdul Aziz Al-Shaibani, head of the G20 water and agriculture team

Abdul Aziz Al-Shaibani

Abdul Aziz Al-Shaibani is head of the water and agriculture team for the G20.
He has been the deputy minister for water affairs at the Saudi Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture since May 2019 and a member of the board of directors of the Saudi Geological Survey since January of the same year.
Al-Shaibani began his career in 1987 as a geophysicist at Saudi Aramco. He then moved to King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) where he worked as a teaching assistant in the earth sciences department between 1988 and 1991.
After that, he lived in the US until 1998, pursuing postgraduate studies in Texas, and then returned to KFUPM as an assistant professor in the earth sciences department, a position he held until 2014.
For the past six years, he has been an associate professor in the department and its chairman since 2005.
Al-Shaibani gained a bachelor’s degree in geophysics from KFUPM and a master’s degree in the same subject and a Ph.D. in geology from Texas A&M University.
Recently, he was interviewed about the first G20 panel discussion on water issues. “All countries have presented their best practices about this topic, including their commitment to providing water and sanitation services during the pandemic despite the challenges of the precautionary measures,” he said.
“The best practices were focused on two important things, success stories in tracking the spread of the virus and monitoring the spread of the virus residues, availability of water and sanitation, and the culture of hygiene since it plays an essential role in combating the spread of the virus,” Al-Shaibani added.