RIP: Arab Oil Age (1973–2023)

<p>Five-decades ago, Saudi Arabia and other Arab members of Opec raised their &ldquo;official&rdquo; oil prices, cut oil production, and declared an embargo on oil exports to the US and others they saw as supporting Israel in a war started by Egypt and Syria but won, militarily, by Israel. Near-term, the war caused huge losses to Arab life, property, and pride. The oil embargo upended both the Arab and Western power structures, for better or worse.</p> <p>The embargo put Opec in charge of crude oil pricing, in place of Western oil majors, then known as the &ldquo;Seven Sisters,&rdquo; that had fine-tuned prices up to that point. Crude oil prices soon quadrupled. Saudi Arabia and other previously impoverished, low-population Gulf Arab oil states, most notably the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, got rich quick &mdash; but not yet powerful. Desperate for security, these cash-rich countries signed&nbsp;<a href="https://medium.com/@sarahmiller_22747/oil-the-unlikely-deglobalizer-d6f81397b3c4" rel="noopener">petrodollar recycling accords</a>&nbsp;that brought much of their wealth back into the international system through US banks and Treasury bonds.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/@sarahmiller_22747/rip-arab-oil-age-1973-2023-4bf1f4b1b12b"><strong>Click Here</strong></a></p>
Tags: Arab Oil