Analysis: High oil prices, Ukraine war at Saudi pivot point

Analysis: High oil prices, Ukraine war at Saudi pivot point

SeattlePI.com

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A spike in global energy prices benefits Saudi Arabia as the world’s top oil exporter, but problems remain for the kingdom’s impulsive crown prince.

Whether trying to find jobs for a growing number of unemployed youth or finding a way to end the long war he launched in Yemen, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his father King Salman now face a potential pivot point for the kingdom amid Russia's war on Ukraine.

Can the ruling Al Saud family reset a now-troubled relationship with the United States, long the security guarantor for the wider Persian Gulf, as tensions simmer with Iran and higher fuel prices squeeze Washington? Or does the kingdom tip toward further toward China, now its biggest buyer of crude, or Moscow?

An American rapprochement seems unlikely. Asked in a recent interview about what he'd want President Joe Biden to know about, Prince Mohammed bluntly said: “I don’t care.”

“It’s up to him to think about the interests of America,” the prince added.

For Saudi interests, however, perhaps no other country in the world stands to rapidly benefit financially from the war as the kingdom.

Its vast oil resources, located close to the surface of its desert expanse, make it one of the world's cheapest places to produce crude. For every $10 rise in the price of a barrel of oil, Saudi Arabia stands to make an additional $40 billion a year, according to the Institute of International Finance.

It's a wild turn of events considering oil prices in April 2020 turned negative at the height of lockdowns in the coronavirus pandemic. Now, benchmark Brent crude stands at $105 a barrel — highs unseen since 2014.

The additional cash comes in handy for 36-year-old Prince Mohammed, whose vision for Saudi Arabia includes developing a futuristic...

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