BEIRUT, Lebanon — King Salman of Saudi Arabia on Sunday named his son Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman as energy minister, putting a member of the royal family for the first time in one of the kingdom’s most important roles, as part of a wider shake-up of top energy-sector jobs.

The appointment of Prince Abdulaziz, an older half brother of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, brings to an end a long line of commoner technocrats charged with overseeing energy policy for the world’s largest oil exporter.

“It is a momentous change to place a royal atop the oil ministry,” said Ellen R. Wald, the president of Transversal Consulting and author of a book about the Saudi oil industry. “That said, Prince Abdulaziz is experienced in Saudi oil policy and well known on the oil scene.”

Prince Abdulaziz, who has been minister of state for energy affairs since 2017, replaces Khalid al-Falih, who was removed last week as board chairman of Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company that he once ran as chief executive. The move announced on Sunday is likely to surprise oil market participants, who had mostly assumed that the departing energy minister would retain that portfolio, which includes sway over Saudi production policy.