Saudi Arabiaâs complex relationship to the oil market: 1985 and 2015

In September 1985, during the Oxford Energy Seminar, the Final Panel assembled its usual set of luminaries (Ministers and CEOs of oil companies), but on this occasion it also included Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the longstanding Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia. The fact that Yamani had shown up for the Final Panel was not necessarily remarkable, as Robert Mabro had an unusual capacity to draw the top names in the industry to the events he organized, especially the Seminar. This year, however, the fact that Yamani, easily the most powerful and highest profile of all the OPEC Ministers, was attending had a special significance: after the price peaks of the post-1979/80 crisis, the oil market was softening and OPEC seemed powerless to arrest the slide. The presence of Yamani was a unique opportunity to hear what the Kingdom had in mind at this critical juncture. Yamani did not disappoint