Looking back on the crisis, Yamani told CNN in 2010 that ‘the Arab oil [embargo] was intended, and I was behind it, not to harm the economy, only to attract international public opinion [there] is a problem between the Palestinians and the Israelites. ‘Yamani’s stated aim at the time of the embargo was to force Israel to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territory.
But the rapid rise in oil prices was a huge blow to OPEC members. “Unfortunately, money is very attractive, members of OPEC, they like money and income. And that’s why they raise the price as fast as possible, and they paid the price for what they did,” Yamani said.
The former oil minister told CNN he did not regret the embargo. But he did have reservations about OPEC’s subsequent attempts to dictate prices.
“I regret what OPEC did. You can not really manage the price. It was a mismanagement of price, a mismanagement of power,” he added.
At that time, OPEC controlled about 80% of global production, far from its diminished status. (Based on its own forecasts for 2021, OPEC’s market share has shrunk to about 30%.) The US State Department said the crisis prompted a number of US efforts to meet foreign policy challenges as due to prolonged dependence. on foreign oil. ‘These efforts included boosting domestic supply, and in 2019 the United States became the world’s largest oil producer.
Urban, elegant and fluent in English, Yamani attended Harvard Law School before being plucked out of darkness by future King Faisal to lead the Saudi oil division. At the time, Saudi Arabia was a middle producer. Within a decade, it would be a spot. One of Yamani’s enduring achievements was to increase Saudi Arabia’s ownership of (and revenue from) the crude production of the kingdom, which has long been dominated by the Western consortium that makes up Aramco.
In 1975, Yamani witnessed the assassination of his mentor, King Faisal, by a disgruntled prince.
It was a traumatic year for the young pastor. On December 21, 1975, he and other OPEC oil ministers were taken hostage in Vienna by a group led by Carlos the Jackal, the most notorious international terrorist of the era. A statement from the attackers called for a role “for the Arab people and other people of the third world” in dealing with oil resources.
The terrorists got the Austrian government to provide a plane to take them and several ministers to Algiers. Carlos planned to kill both Yamani and Iranian Oil Minister Jamshid Amuzegar, but he eventually agreed to release them after Algerian mediation.
Yamani’s fall of grace stemmed from King Fahd’s claim in 1986 that he should get an increase in Saudi Arabia’s export quota within OPEC – and that the cartel should set a price of $ 18 a barrel. He was unable to achieve the King’s goals and was dismissed shortly thereafter.
In his later years, Yamani said that the price of oil was distorted by speculation, which led to erratic fluctuations. And it wasn’t just speculation. He told CNN: “Do not forget that politics is important. Anything can happen and it can ruin the oil industry, or raise it.”
While involved in the world of energy, he also conceded his passion for watches, poetry and the preservation of Islamic texts. He was a deeply religious man and the son of a celebrated religious scholar.
Yamani took advantage of Saudi Arabia’s unique position as an energy producer at a time when the United States, Europe and Japan needed large quantities of oil. In his 2010 CNN interview, he said that despite the rise of renewable sources, oil would remain part of the energy mix, but he acknowledged that it would not go on forever.
“The Stone Age has ended, not because of a lack of stones, and the oil age will end, but not for a lack of oil.”