There really has not been much foreign investment in the way of...

There really has not been much foreign investment in the way of greenfield projects in Saudi. As the largest foreign operated minerals project in Saudi, it would be damaging to KSA credibility should it fall apart due to a complete failure of the Saudi legal system. Saudi Arabia might not have cared much for foreign investment before when oil was at $100 a barrel, but at $40, it is burning through billions in reserves a month in giving out welfare handouts lest the population demands a revolution, and hence the certain urgency in the solicitation of foreign investments with the King meeting US executives and other US authorities, which just 'happened' to coincide with out Board shuffles and management changes.

Any foreign investment into Saudi is unlikely to involve technology; it is most likely going to revolve around the non-oil natural resources and perhaps incidental industrial plants processing those extracted natural resources. As the posterchild for foreign owned mineral exploration in Saudi, what would it do to investor sentiment if it all falls through? Intervention is coming, the only question is when and how, given the complex nature of Saudi governance that is neither democratic nor absolute dictatorship.