Saudis Claim Conspiracy Theorists, Not OPEC, To Blame For Oil Price Crash
A top Saudi official said on March 15 that Thomas Friedman and other conspiracy theorists are to blame for the crash in oil prices.
Rather than an oversupply and weak demand causing an imbalance in global oil markets, Dr. Ibrahim Al-Muhanna, the advisor to Saudi Arabia’s Petroleum Minister, said that excessive speculation drove the oil bust.
“The recent price fall was due largely to expectation and perception about future supply and demand… and the ever-present – and incorrect – belief in conspiracy theories,” Al-Muhanna said at the Institute of International Finance Spring Membership Meeting on March 15.
Al-Muhanna admitted that supplies were building over the course of 2014, but said that demand “remained strong” and that the price fall was unjustified given market fundamentals. After prices started to fall, the media and market analysts drove the narrative to unfounded levels.
Related: Misleading IEA Statement Sends Oil Prices Crashing
In fact, Al-Muhanna said, in October 2014 when Saudi Arabia adjusted its price for oil heading for Asia – a conventional practice that occurs every month – western media began talking up Saudi Arabia’s “price war,” and he even singled out New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. “Then an article by Thomas Friedman suggested Saudi Arabia’s policy – in coordination with the Obama administration – was aimed at hurting Russia by lowering the oil price. This idea was a rehash of assumptions that first reasoned the oil fall of the 1980s. All complete fantasy.”
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