RIP: Arab Oil Age (1973–2023)
<p>Five-decades ago, Saudi Arabia and other Arab members of Opec raised their “official” 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 “Seven Sisters,” 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 — but not yet powerful. Desperate for security, these cash-rich countries signed <a href="https://medium.com/@sarahmiller_22747/oil-the-unlikely-deglobalizer-d6f81397b3c4" rel="noopener">petrodollar recycling accords</a> that brought much of their wealth back into the international system through US banks and Treasury bonds.</p>
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