Category: Saudi Arabia

National Water Co., the biggest water supplier in oil-rich Saudi Arabia , plans to build a 1.8 billion-riyal ($480 million) storage facility in its desert capital Riyadh. The 4.6 million-cubic-meter storage facility is part of the first phase of a project to “achieve a sustainable and secure water supply and meet the challenges of providing water-sector services” in the kingdom’s largest city, the state-owned company said today in an e-mail. The second phase of the biggest Saudi water-storage project will add 6 million cubic meters more of capacity at a cost of 2.6 billion riyals to serve the city’s 5 million residents. Chief Executive Officer Luay Al Musallam said last year that the Saudi state projects are part of a 51 billion-riyal water-resources investment in cities including Riyadh , Mecca and the port of Jeddah . This year alone, the government has allocated 16.6 billion riyals for desalination projects […]

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A rare public dispute over oil policy in Saudi Arabia emerged Tuesday as billionaire Prince al-Waleed bin Talal disagreed with the kingdom’s energy minister over the potential impact of falling Continue Reading

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia is quietly telling the oil market it would be comfortable with much lower oil prices for an extended period, a sharp shift in policy that may be aimed at slowing the expansion of rival producers including those in the U.S. shale patch. Some OPEC members including Venezuela are clamoring for production cuts to push oil prices back up above $100 a barrel. But Saudi officials have given a different message in meetings with investors and analysts: the kingdom, OPEC’s largest producer, will accept oil prices below $90 per barrel, and perhaps down to $80, for as long as a year or two, according to people who have been briefed on the recent conversations. The discussions, some in New York over the past week, offer the clearest sign yet that the kingdom is setting aside its longstanding de facto aim of holding prices at […]

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Saudi Arabia’s “Oil-Weapon” Hits Europe We first exposed the “secret” US-Saudi deal in September which led to the inevitable bombing of Syria . We then progressed to explain the quid pro quo of the deal in lower oil prices (benefiting US consumers into an election and crushing Russian revenues) . In today’s Wall Street Journal we get the final piece of the puzzle as it is clear that what Saudi Arabia loses in ‘price’ it will make up in ‘volume’ as The Kingdon is taking the unusual step of asking buyers to commit to maximum shipments if they want to get its crude. Simply put, “ they are threatening [European] buyers” to discontinue sales if they don’t agree with the full fixed deliveries . The ‘oil weapon’ grows stronger… As The Wall Street Journal explains, Days after slashing prices in Asia, Saudi Arabia is now making an aggressive push […]

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LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) – "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma," Winston Churchill told his listeners in a radio broadcast in October 1939. Much the same can be said about Saudi Arabia – one of the most compulsively secretive countries in the world at the start of the 21st century. Almost nothing is known about how the kingdom’s rulers reach decisions on political and economic reform, foreign policy and oil market strategy (or indeed about anything else). Outsiders are strongly discouraged from enquiring into matters of long-term policy and how decisions are made. The kingdom’s rulers have a communications strategy, reaching out privately to friendly journalists, analysts and other opinion formers. But for the most part it is deployed to shut down discussion and speculation they consider unhelpful rather than to convey or explain the […]

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DUBAI (Reuters) – Still haunted by its failed attempt to prevent a steep drop in oil prices by slashing production by almost three quarters in the 1980s, the world’s top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is determined not to make the same mistake again. The oil glut of the 1980s, the early days of the modern crude market and a distant memory for most traders, has resurfaced recently in conversations with Saudi officials and veteran analysts who see it as the defining moment behind the kingdom’s new strategy to protect medium-term market share. While the latest 25 percent slide in oil prices to below $90 a barrel is so far modest compared with the 1980s slump that took crude from $35 to below $10, many observers see similarities in a global market that is on the brink of a pivotal turn from an era of scarcity to one of abundance. […]

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By Sarah Kent LONDON–Saudi Arabia told the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that it increased its oil production by 107,000 barrels a day last month, defying market hopes that the OPEC kingpin might cut its output in the face of free falling prices. The information published in OPEC’s monthly oil market report Friday contrasts with data provided by secondary sources, which in the same report said the Kingdom’s output fell by 50,000 barrels a day last month to 9.6 million barrels a day. That is 100,000 barrels a day less than the number Saudi Arabia said it pumped. It is not uncommon for the information provided by OPEC members and secondary sources in the organization’s monthly report to show discrepancies, but the fact that Saudi Arabia is publicly saying it is pumping more oil at a time when many member countries are hoping it will cut back to […]

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AP Photo/Hassan Ammar World Video Latest News Buy AP Photo Reprints DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia is waging a "systematic and ruthless campaign of persecution" against peaceful activists in order to silence criticism of the state in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, Amnesty International said Friday. The rights group released a new 20-page report, titled "Saudi Arabia’s ACPRA: How the kingdom silences its human rights activists," focusing mostly on the cases brought against 11 members of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association. Amnesty refers to the group as ACRPA, though it is also widely known by its Arabic acronym HASEM. "The Saudi Arabian authorities have targeted the founding members of ACPRA one by one, in a relentless effort to dismantle the organization and silence its members, as part of a broader crackdown on independent activism and freedom of expression since 2011," the […]

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