I don't get it.<p>It is estimated that below 50$/barrel Saudi Arabia is basically pushing wealth out of their country. (Balance of payment in negative, it is right?.)<p>And below 80$/barrel they are running the country at a deficit.<p>They are now selling to 30$/barrel.<p>What is the strategy here? Push all "high-tech" producers out of the market and shut up the price again? How long can they last? And how much it will cost?
Saudi Arabia has shifted away from thinking like manufacturers to thinking like investors. Oil doesn’t matter to them - it does now, but it doesn’t psychologically. Wealth is what matters.<p>Oil is still their golden goose - their special “10x” or “unicorn” status sauce. If the forecast for long-term global oil demand is losing steam in light of desires to shift away from fossil fuels, then perhaps sooner is the best time to sell those assets to accumulate wealth to save and invest in other areas to grow more wealth (ex. Vision Fund).<p>IMO - the price war is a short game to fund pivots into different long games - and as we all know, starting out with wealth to fund that is a nice situation to have.
MSB has already lost. It is only a matter of time before he gets the Khashoggi treatment.<p>He personally stole $100 Billion from his extended family and other Saudis.<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/11/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-corruption-mohammed-bin-salman.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/11/world/middleeast/saudi-ar...</a><p>Saudi Aramco is only $101 Billion or half the "required" market cap of $200 Billion MSB needs to fund Saudi Arabia.<p>He is a deadman walking but so it Saudi Arabia.<p>"My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a came"
"Aramco, on the prospectus for its 2019 initial public offering, warned that oil demand might peak within 20 years."<p>From what I read, it's going to be more like ten years from now. That because in a another two or three years, battery prices will be low enough that ev sticker prices will match ice ones, and that plus public policies will lead to ev sales skyrocketing and ice sales plunging.<p>Saudi Arabia knows the big transition is coming, and is working as fast as it can go get its economy out of oil. I don't see how it is going to be able to do this fast enough to avoid financial disaster.
Who is that moron that wrote the article? Byzantine art of diplomacy? Saudia Arabia never existed when the Byzantines did! Also the Byzantines weren't known for their diplomacy.<p>It's like saying the prussians enagaged in Catholic meditative sessions.