Saudi Arabia continues to be a major force in Asia’s oil market, new figures from the US Energy information Administration (EIA) show – despite plummeting prices.
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The kingdom must undertake “a large multi-year fiscal adjustment” to balance the budget, the International Monetary Fund said.
On the Saudi-led coalition fighting Al Houthi rebels in Yemen, some differences of emphasis remain between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
“I believe it will be growth-supportive – especially on the consumption side”, Monica Malik, a chief economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank said at the time. “We hope that the Iranians will take advantage of this agreement, which allows for a removal gradually of their isolation”.
The Saudi embrace of the deal, however grudging the path in getting to this point, offered Mr. Obama a chance to begin moving past the debate over it. Just this week, he secured enough Democratic support to sustain a veto of legislation trying to block it. Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado on Friday became the 38th Democrat in the upper house to announce his support, but Senator Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, came out against the deal.
Decades’ worth of sanctions have stunted Iran’s oil industry, meaning that its exploration and production costs tend to be lower than those in more developed oil exporting rivals. “This will inevitably result in at least no increase in production”. Nothing the USA agrees to, however, should violate its policy of ensuring that the “qualitative military edge” in the region lies with Israel – which also happens to support Arab efforts to contain Iran. Saudi investment firm Jadwa also said last week that by the end of July, the government had withdrawn $82bn from its reserves, reducing its contingency assets to $650bn.
Al-Jubeir was obviously saying that Saudi Arabia’s problems with Iran go well beyond that country’s facilities for enrichment of uranium.
“We are definitely not looking at a crisis and we cannot be alarmist, but [the current path] is unsustainable in the medium to long term and decisions have to be made”, said Soussa.
With that in mind, EFG Hermes has an “underperform” rating on Saudi Arabia, which it says will remain a drag on the region as it grapples with low oil prices. The reality, however, is different to perception.
According to the United Nations, more than 220,000 people have been killed and one million wounded in the conflicts.
“Global demand [for oil] has kept up well”.
The two key players in the Saudi energy sector – Saudi Electricity Co (SEC), under the electricity ministry, and state oil company Aramco, under the oil ministry – need to be “in full alignment with K.A.Care’s ambitions”, Mahtab said.
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Saudi Arabia is the dominant member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and oil and gas accounts for around half of its GDP and 85 percent of its export earnings.
