Arabian Oil Tsar to President Bush: ‘Get Lost’

After pleading with King Abdullah to pump more oil and ease gas prices, “get lost” was the answer President Bush received on his historic visit to Saudi Arabia.“Presidents and kings have every right to comment or ask or say whatever they want,” but we will not do it, the Saudi oil minister, Ali Naimi, responded in a hastily convened press conference hours after the presidential supplication.Particularly noteworthy is that Mr. Bush made his entreaty on behalf of American consumers whose tax dollars and soldiers have — twice since 1990 — saved Saudi Arabia’s hide from Saddam Hussein’s claws. Even by Bedouin standards of hospitality, that was a blow below the Texan’s belt.For at least a decade now, Saudi Arabia has favored pliant reporters and editors and oil industry sycophants and lobbyists with its “secret potion” for oil power, the reason it is Sampson to OPEC’s Delilah — namely its mighty “excess” production ability.Saudi Arabia is the producer of last reserve, we are told. It can pump it up when necessary, which is why we in America must extend protection and alliance to the kingdom against all enemies. Indeed, all the Saudi satellites in the region — Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, too — could pump it up but won’t, opting for higher prices while panting after American protection.This seductive striptease act was performed beautifully back in the ’70s by the then-wily oil minister of the kingdom, Ahmed Zaki Yamani, whose suave charm leaves the coarse Mr. Naimi in the dust. Mr. Yamani’s joker in every deck at the OPEC gatherings was that his production was bigger than others’, and there was more where that came from. As recently as this past year, the Saudis were still at it, saying they could pump 2 more million barrels a day over and above their present level of 8.5 million barrels.If not now when prices are scorching world economies, when?Instead of saying pretty please, that was the question the president could have asked.Mr. Bush did explain why — in enabling terminology. “My point to His Majesty,” he told ABC News, is “when consumers have less purchasing power because of high prices of gasoline, in other words, when it affects their families, it could cause this economy to slow down.”Well, duh. “Majesty,” one is tempted to ask, “which part of this do you not understand?”One component may lie in the dysfunctional nature of Saudi Arabia, its national oil company Aramco — a country within a country — and the duplicitous nature of Saudi oil ministers who have also been known to tell the royals to get lost. Mr. Yamani was fired for crossing King Fahd when he was overheard at an OPEC meeting saying the monarch simply did not understand oil.It was part of a celebrated three-year-episode when after Fahd sunk into a coma, Abdullah took the reigns. His very first act was to launch a renowned “gas and oil initiative,” inviting American and international oil companies to aggressively come into the kingdom for joint ventures to produce more gas and oil. Mr. Naimi, who was then the newly appointed oil minister, let it be known that this would happen over his dead body. Distrusting his own oil minister, Abdullah placed a top nephew, Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, in overall command of the negotiations.Yet for three years, however, the unctuous Mr. Naimi sabotaged talks at every turn with every group. Fed up, the companies walked by 2004. Royals were calling Mr. Naimi names, saying his days were numbered. Yet there he was last week saying presidents and kings don’t matter.Saudi Arabia remains dysfunctional.The presidential crew reported that high on the Saudi wish list during Mr. Bush’s visit was a demand for more American visas for Saudis. Never mind that 15 of the 19 hijackers of September 11, 2001, were Saudis; that 80% of Saudis still think Osama bin Laden is a good old country boy, or that one-third of the enemy combatants once held at Guantanamo were Saudis — most have by now been released to Saudi Arabia as a favor by Mr. Bush to his pal Abdullah.The Saudis told Mr. Bush they really, really, loved him and want visas, yet America and the world cannot have cheaper oil and gas. And it all made sense to them.ymibrahim@gmail.com

Arabian Oil Tsar to President Bush: ‘Get Lost’

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