Posted on 04/18/2016 7:27:28 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Saudi Arabia turns oil weapon on Iran: Kemp
By Reuters
Published: 13:22 GMT, 18 April 2016 | Updated: 13:22 GMT, 18 April 2016
By John Kemp
LONDON, April 18 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's decision to scupper negotiations on a coordinated oil output freeze in Doha on Sunday seems to confirm a significant shift in the kingdom's oil policy.
For decades, the kingdom has insisted it does not wield oil as a diplomatic weapon, but at the weekend it did just that as part of an intensifying conflict with Iran. ("Saudi-Iran tensions scupper deal to freeze oil output", Reuters, April 17)
The kingdom's position on Iranian oil production has steadily hardened over the course of the last year and at the weekend it reached its logical conclusion.
Saudi Arabia will not accept any constraints on its output, even freezing at record levels, unless Iran agrees to similar controls, which it has rejected until production has reached pre-sanctions levels.
By insisting on this hard-line position, Saudi Arabia ensured the talks would fail, and the kingdom seems comfortable with the outcome. Diplomatic strategy seems to have trumped oil market considerations.
Saudi Arabia would rather have a lower oil price and lower revenues for all producers, including itself, rather than reach a production agreement that would deliver increased income to its arch-rival across the Gulf.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Or pulling out their money is just a bluff?
P!
Good. I hope they annhilate each other, like the NutJob Particle and the anti-NutJob Particle coming together to destroy one another and make the wolrd better for the greater good of humanity.
Just like when their defense minister mouthed off about going to war with Syria and Russia the Saudis are overestimating their fading power and importance.
They are frisky now but if Trump is elected their days in the sun are about over. They are also running out of money fast. No, they will not go broke over night but in less than 10 years at the current pace.
If that happens, they may become another Yemen.
“What happens if Saudi pull out their money from U.S. as they have threaten to do if their complicity in 9/11 is made public, while this is going on?”
After making continuous deals with the devil, gotta bite the bullet and deal with it, eventually.
“Or pulling out their money is just a bluff?”
If allegedly complicit in killing 3000 people in one day to keep afloat, don’t think they’d bluff about ‘their money’.
Depends how USA handles the said offensive.
As for Iran, the mullahs were (regionally) helped by the Saudis to come to power, for starters at least. So, they can deal with it now too.
I saw part of a PBS Frontline documentary on the Kingdom while I was travelling and was shocked to see that much of the country is already Yemen...or worse. At first I thought it was a documentary about ISIS. The religious police were in the slums conducting summary trials and beheading people on the spot. They would hang the headless bodies in a public place and leave them there to rot as a lesson. They showed how large and pervasive the slum areas are all over the country. It seems that only Sunnis prosper in SA...and usually only those families connected to the Royal Family. It showed the Religious Police in action at one of the premier shopping malls. Women were beaten on the spot for spending too much time in a shoe store. It was truly appalling. And most Americans think of SA as 'civilized'.
Not quite but close.
I worked for one of the national oil companies on the Arabian Peninsula, for the finance manager. That was 20 years ago after the first Gulf War. He had elaborate plans laid for leaving the country when the oil ran out, he figured on it. I asked what happens to the country then? He said, “The wind will blow and the sand will cover everything. As for me, I have a villa in Switzerland.”
Too bad they both can’t lose.
They can't "pull out their money" -- all they can do is sell their "investment" on the open market. The consequences of that would be irrelevant to the US, or beneficial, but would undermine the Chinese export-surplus economic model, iow, they'd be intercoursed.
They have to do it anyway, KSA is on a spending spree as they believe that all their problems could be solved by paying money.
They will run out of cash within a few years from now, and they have to start selling soon. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/02/11/saudi-arabia-may-go-broke-before-the-us-oil-industry-buckles/ Sure ,there will be high volatility on the financial markets, but it will give a lot of acquisition opportunities
As the Saudi regime weakens, the following developments can be expected:
• Decreased ability for Saudi Arabia to control the various social, political, and
economic factions within state and society, leading to greater instability in the
country;
• Dissent within the Saudi royal family;
• Shiites emboldened in the Eastern province (where most of the oil is) and in the
southwestern border regions near Yemen;
• Increase in terrorist attacks on Saudi soil;
• Loosening control over the Saudi religious establishment, which could help boost
the legitimacy of groups like Islamic State and al-Qaeda;
• Public agitation from a largely youthful population;
• The decline of Riyadh’s ability to shape events in the region, especially by backing
proxy groups;
• Many of the groups Saudi Arabia used to support could descend into IS orbit,
strengthening the Islamic State’s position;
http://www.mauldineconomics.com/download/saudi-arabia-a-failing-kingdom
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