In OPEC Hotel, Dealmaker’s Gambit Wins Saudi-Iran Agreement
- Algerian host used beach resort to get ministers negotiating
- Multilateral talks on production reduction began in June
Tchilinguirian: Big Saudi-Iran Divide at OPEC Talks
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Noureddine Boutarfa, the Algerian oil minister who hosted this week’s OPEC meeting, resorted to one of the oldest tricks in the dealmaker’s book: He put his fellow ministers in the same hotel in the middle of nowhere.
The strategy worked. Corralled on two floors of the Sheraton Club des Pins Resort, a hotel with the appearance of a corporate headquarters about a 40-minute drive from central Algiers, representatives of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries had little to do except talk to each other.