Liam Denning, Columnist

Wanted In Saudi Arabia: An Extremely Careful Driver

The kingdom needs higher oil prices -- but not too much higher.

June 27, 2017 at 6:00 PM UTC

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

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Until the Panama Canal was expanded last year, tankers traversing its old 109-foot-wide locks might have only a couple of feet to spare on either side.

Their ticklish task of squeezing through the gap without mishap offers a useful metaphor for Saudi Arabia's big problem in trying to manage oil prices -- except, in Saudi Arabia's case, it's more like steering a tanker through the canal wearing a blindfold, and with a mutinous crew.