Why Saudi Arabia Wants to Scare Oil Traders
The country’s oil minister talks tough to fellow OPEC+ members and oil traders alike.
Saudia Arabia wants OPEC laggards to deliver on their promises.
Photographer: Karim Sahib/AFP via Getty Images
Last week’s virtual meeting of oil ministers from the OPEC+ alliance was a fascinating insight into the exercise of power by Saudi oil minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman. It opened with ABS, as he’s referred to, lecturing his counterparts about the importance of honoring the oil output cuts they agree to, not as an act of charity but as a vital commitment to maximizing each member country’s profits.
The only person sitting at the table with him in Riyadh was the oil minister of the United Arab Emirates — the latest country to blatantly ignore its production goal. It can’t have been a particularly comfortable place to be.