Uh Oh: Saudi Arabia defies US, cuts oil production. Russia to benefit. Dark Brandon VERY mad.

Arithmetic

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The new oil war: Opec moves against the US​

Saudi Arabia and Russia’s agreement to cut oil production in defiance of Washington may upend the global energy order



Half a century ago, the Yom Kippur war between Israel and Arab states put a new cartel of oil producers at the centre of global politics. The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, halted oil supplies to the western countries that had supported Israel. It was the first global oil shock.

On Wednesday, the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, Saudi Arabia and its oil allies — which now include Russia in the Opec+ group — moved to upend the world’s energy order again.

Their decision to slash 2mn barrels a day from production targets, or 2 per cent of global supply, might sound modest. But doing so while Brent crude was trading at a lofty $90 a barrel — almost twice its long-term historical price — is a threat to a global economy stalked by inflation and mounting consumer anxiety about energy prices and shortages. And it marks a new and perhaps dangerous breach between producer and consumer countries, especially between the US and Saudi Arabia.

The timing of the cuts for the US was especially telling, coming just two and a half months after President Joe Biden had exchanged fist bumps with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah, and five weeks before November’s midterm elections. Days earlier, envoys from the White House had travelled to Saudi Arabia to implore the kingdom not to cut.

Instead, Prince Mohammed’s half brother, energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman sealed the deal to slash supply at the Opec headquarters on Vienna’s Helferstorferstraße. Alongside him was Vladimir Putin’s deputy prime minister Alexander Novak, only days after he was slapped with sanctions by the US.


Roger Diwan, a veteran Opec watcher at S&P Global Commodity Insight, said in a note the cuts marked a “weaponisation of oil” and suggested the timing and location of the meeting were a deliberate signal from the cartel.

“The presence of the Russian deputy prime minister under US sanctions, to discuss tightening of oil supply heading into a winter in which Russia has already weaponised its gas exports to Europe sends a clear message,” Diwan said. “Saudi Arabia’s adversarial path will skew price risk even higher for oil.”

For Saudi Arabia, which has long depended on the US for military support as part of an energy-for-security alliance that has endured through two wars in the Gulf and the 9/11 attacks, it underscores a new confidence that it can break free of American pressure and act in its own commercial and diplomatic interests.

Pay very close attention to this space :lupe:
 

Arithmetic

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Joe Biden to ‘re-evaluate’ Saudi relations after Opec cuts, White House says


US president Joe Biden is re-evaluating America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia after the Opec+ decision last week to cut oil production, a top White House adviser said on Tuesday, as tensions between Washington and Riyadh continue to rise.

“I think the president’s been very clear that this is a relationship that we need to continue to re-evaluate, that we need to be willing to revisit, and certainly in light of the Opec decision, I think that’s where he is,” John Kirby, the National Security Council’s senior communications adviser, told CNN on Tuesday.

Kirby’s comments come after senior Democrats on Capitol Hill have been calling on the White House and Congress to take a much tougher stance on Saudi Arabia in light of the production cuts, which were announced just four weeks before the US midterm elections, threatening a new surge in oil prices.

Bob Menendez, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, called for a freeze in co-operation with Saudi Arabia, possibly including a halt to weapons sales to the kingdom.

“I will not greenlight any co-operation with Riyadh until the kingdom reassesses its position with respect to the war in Ukraine. Enough is enough,” Menendez said.
 

Arithmetic

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what will those arabs do once the modern world fully embraces EV's?

their days are numbered.
NEOM is coming. :wow:


 

Brehvity3135

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what will those arabs do once the modern world fully embraces EV's?

their days are numbered.

Not really. You need infrastructure for EV’s. Russia has no intention of providing infrastructure for the developing nations they are in. Only armament deals.

China will provide the infrastructure in the same countries Russia brokers armament deals but they’re shoddy and not environmental friend. The west is leading the way for EV, developing nations are 100 years away and don’t have the cultural sense of obligation to save the planet. You have India and China with massive populations that guzzle gasoline like water. You have South American countries who could careless about the environment and are just trying to bring their people closer to quality living standards. EV is first world problems personified :mjlol: .



The significance of this is influence. Saudi Arabia is tired of playing by US rules by the US being their biggest consumer. Now they will sell to any and every rogue and hostile state to the United States without the friendly political pressure. Saudi Arabia is attempting to build their own Belt and Road initiative much like China throughout the region.

Any political pressure in the forms of sanctions will be seen as aggression.
 
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