the crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is only 34 but is somewhat of a veteran of the decision-making regarding the oil production in the kingdom of saudi Arabia. For several years, it is the amount of MBS as he is called, who has the executive power of the oljemonarkin his father, the king, al-qaeda, is sick, and the aged, and to have handed over the decision-making process for his son.
the MBS were involved in the recent price war in 2014, when the saudis opened the oljekranarna in an attempt to break the us producers of shale oil. As a minimum, the price was down to 27 dollars a barrel.
a test failed. Most of the american companies to survive. The production is more effective, and saudi Arabia, had to go to the cross, and conform to the system of price control.
in saudi Arabia, the challenge of the market is the country's location is more fragile, and the risks are greater, he. For the past five years, saudi Arabia has engaged in a costly and energy-intensive war in Yemen, for which there is no fast way out of. The crown prince has been turned into maktintriger indicating the instability of the country's top leadership. At the weekend, the police arrested two of the leaders of the house of Saud, on the orders of Mohammed bin Salman.
the urgency of the threat from this new coronavirus, which has led to a sharp decline in the demand for crude oil, particularly in China.
saudi Arabia has 18% of the world's oil reserves and has long been the world's biggest oil exporter. Oil and gas account for over 50 per cent of the GDP and about 70 per cent of export earnings.
One of the political hobby horses is to steer clear of saudi Arabia from this one-sided dependence on oil. For the nearly four years since he launched the Vision 2030 and the national reform plan in order to diversify the country's economy, with far-reaching privatisations and investments in the finance sector and the tertiary sector.
it will no longer be able to afford to pay foreigners to do all the work, and that the money is deposited into the state treasury will have to come from other sources than the oil.
during the nearly four years that have elapsed since the plan was put into effect, has not taken place. The attempts to privatize portions of the state-owned oil giant Aramco has so far not been successful. The grand launch of a superteknologisk mega city in the desert, a biljonprojekt called Neom, is currently still in the ritbordsstadiet.
And the spending continues, recent data from the peace research institute peace research institute (Sipri shows that the kingdom of saudi Arabia is the world's largest vapenköpare, by a wide margin.
the need of saudi Arabia, an oil price of 80 dollars a barrel, in order to be able to finance these investments. On the other hand, there is speculation that one of Mohammed bin al-qaeda may not care as much if rates fall: this increases the the only to the need for saudi Arabia to implement the reform plans.
Dan Lucas: one more sign that the global economy is reeling.
the Economist is A situation that we haven't been in since the financial crisis.