Oil Climbs as Saudi King’s Death Spurs Policy Speculation
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — There will be no golden carriages.
The funeral of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, whose death was announced early on Friday, is set to be a simple affair in line with the austere form of Islam practiced by one of the world’s wealthiest ruling families.
The body of the former custodian of Islam’s two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, will be bathed according to Islamic ritual. The late ruler, whose net worth has been estimated to stand at around $20 billion, will then be wrapped in two pieces of plain white cloth — the standard shroud for all Muslims.
According to tradition, nothing out of the ordinary will be done to King Abdullah’s body, and after it is prepared it will be taken to the Imam Turki Bin Abdullah Grand Mosque in the capital Riyadh for the funeral prayers at around 3:15 p.m. (7:15 a.m. ET).
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Abdullah's rule over one of the West's key Muslim allies left an indelible, if ambiguous, legacy. Here are five notable characteristics of his reign.
Oil rose after the death of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Futures rallied as much as 3.1 percent in New York and 2.6 percent in London after the Saudi royal court announced the death in a statement. Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz will succeed Abdullah on the throne. The kingdom, the world’s largest crude exporter, led OPEC’s decision to maintain its oil-production quota at a meeting in November, exacerbating a global glut that’s driven prices lower.
“The passing of King Abdullah is going to increase uncertainty and increase volatility in oil prices in the near term,” Neil Beveridge, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., said by phone. “I wouldn’t expect a change in policy in the near term to be known, but the passing comes at a challenging time for Saudi Arabia.”
Oil fell almost 50 percent last year as the U.S. pumped at the fastest rate in more than three decades and OPEC resisted calls to cut output. Crude stockpiles in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer, rose by 10.1 million barrels through Jan. 16, the Energy Information Administration reported on Thursday. That was the biggest volume gain since March 2001.
Policy Uncertainty
West Texas Intermediate for March delivery climbed as much as $1.45 to $47.76 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $47.05 at 3:44 p.m. Singapore time. The contract dropped $1.47 to $46.31 on Thursday. Total volume was about 41 percent above the 100-day average. Prices have decreased 3.3 percent this week.
Brent for March settlement advanced as much as $1.28 to $49.80 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark crude traded at a premium of $2.36 to WTI, compared with $1.04 on Jan. 16.
King Abdullah oversaw a fivefold expansion in the size of the Arab world’s biggest economy and met the Arab Spring with a mixture of force and largesse. He died after almost a decade on the throne. He was born in 1924.
“The market is reacting bullishly to this news because it may usher in a period of uncertainty as far as Saudi policies going forward as new leadership takes over,” said Andy Lipow, the president of Lipow Oil Associates LLC, an energy consultant in Houston, Texas.
Market ‘Tensions’
King Salman, in his previous capacity as crown prince, read a speech on behalf of the monarch on Jan. 6 that confirmed the continuity of Saudi oil policy in the face of market “tensions” caused by slow growth in the global economy.
A key indicator will be whether Salman, 79, retains the oil minister, Ali Al-Naimi, who has driven decision-making since 1995. Al-Naimi, who turns 80 this year, has said he’d like to devote more time to his other job as the chairman of the science and technology university named after the late sovereign.
“There’s the possibility that Ali al-Naimi could be replaced as oil minister,” said Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group in Chicago. “The biggest concern is uncertainty. But, because the world is awash in oil, the reaction was muted.”
The king’s death also raises the question of whether instability across the Middle East will intensify, according to Flynn. King Abdullah had “done a good job trying to subdue” insurgents in the country, and Saudi Arabia may face increasing pressure from them now that he’s gone, he said.
Global Supplies
Middle East nations account for half of OPEC’s 12 members. The group, which supplies about 40 percent of the world’s oil, maintained its collective production target at 30 million barrels a day at a Nov. 27 meeting in Vienna. Output averaged 30.2 million in December, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Saudi Arabia pumped 9.5 million a day last month.
“Any form of economic instability after the death of the king will create a little bit of uncertainty,” saidJonathan Barratt, the chief investment officer at Ayers Alliance Securities in Sydney. “The market is exceptionally short, so even if there’s a bit of a slight err, you could see a rally of some substance. The supply story is still out there.”
U.S. crude inventories have risen to 12 percent above the five-year average for this time of year, based on Thursday’s report from the EIA, the Energy Department’s statistical arm. Production surged to 9.19 million barrels a day through Jan. 9, the most in weekly records dating back to January 1983.
In China, Saudi Arabia’s share of crude sales shrank for a second year as the Asian nation bought more from Russia. The world’s second-largest consumer imported 49.67 million metric tons of Saudi oil last year, according to General Administration of Customs data e-mailed Friday. That’s about 997,000 barrels a day, the least since 2010.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net; Sharon Cho in Singapore at ccho28@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pratish Narayanan at pnarayanan9@bloomberg.netYee Kai Pin
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Москва, 19 января. Владимир Путин освободил от занимаемых должностей одного чиновника из своего аппарата и двух дипломатов. Соответствующие указы опубликованы на едином портале правовой информации.
«Освободить Малюшина Ивана Дмитриевича от должности заместителя управляющего делами президента России. Настоящий указ вступает в силу с момента опубликования», — гласит документ за подписью Владимира Путина от 19 января.
Также своих постов лишились чрезвычайный и полномочный посол Российской Федерации в республике Перу Николай Софинский и Игорь Чубаров, который занимал аналогичную должность в Государстве Эритрея. Причины увольнения в указах президента не названы.
В настоящее время из вышеназванных увольнений компенсировано только одною чрезвычайным и полномочным послом Российской Федерации в Государстве Эритрея назначен Азим Ярохмедов.
Иван Малюшин родился 9 января 1949 года в Ленинграде. Закончил Ленинградский механический институт по специальности радиоэлектронные устройства. Работал генеральным директором АОЗТ «Генеральное инвестиционно-финансовое агентство «Респект», заместителем, а потом генеральным директором Санкт-Петербургской продовольственной корпорации. Был главой исполнительной дирекции по обслуживанию резиденции полномочного представителя президента РФ в Северо-Западном федеральном округе. В 2001-2003 годы занимал пост директора ФГУП «Дирекция по строительству и реконструкции объектов в Северо-Западном федеральном округе» УПД РФ. Был назначен заместителем управляющего делами президента России в 2003 году.
Николай Софинский родился 10 февраля 1958. Окончил МГИМО МИД СССР (1980). На дипломатической работе с 1990 года. Кандидат исторических наук. Работал в российском посольстве в Испании, заместителем директора Департамента Северной Америки МИД России, генеральным консулом России в Хьюстоне (США). С 15 февраля 2011 года занимал пост чрезвычайного и полномочного посла России в Перу.
Игорь Чубаров родился 23 февраля 1947 года. Окончил МГИМО (1977). На дипломатической работе с 1980 года. Работал в советских посольствах в Эфиопии, Сомали, Сьерра-Леоне, российском посольстве в Нигерии. Занимал также должности советника департамента Африки МИД России, советника-посланника посольства России в Эфиопии, начальника отдела департамента Африки МИД России, советника-посланника посольства России в Эфиопии. Пост чрезвычайного и полномочного посла России в Государстве Эритрея занимал с 25 февраля 2009 года.
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The United States says it is giving 328 advanced military vehicles to Uzbekistan to be used for counterterrorism and counternarcotics operations.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Seth Rogen responded to the outrage incited by a series of tweets he wrote regarding the film "American Sniper" in a statement issued exclusively to the Associated Press on Thursday, saying it wasn't his intent to offend anyone or to say anything with political implications....
The White House says President Barack Obama will not meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visits Washington in March to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress. Republican House Speaker John Boehner said that he did not consult with the White House in advance. Many see the invitation as a rebuke by congressional Republicans to President Obama’s policy of international diplomacy to curb Iran’s nuclear program. VOA’s Cindy Saine has the story from Capitol Hill.
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia died Thursday of natural causes at age 90, leaving in place whatappears to be a well-laid succession plan that U.S. analysts hope will assure continued stable relations between Washington and the oil-rich country that dominates most of the peninsula.
Unfortunately, in neighboring Yemen, the government of U.S. ally President Abdel Rabbo Mansour Hadi also died Thursday, leaving nothing but the prospect of a failed state and increased sway for Iran-backed Houthi rebels and a powerful and dangerous branch of al Qaeda.
On balance, the bad news outweighs the good.
Abdullah’s successor, Crown Prince Salman, is an established figure in U.S.-Saudi affairs, with ahistory of collaboration on national security matters dating to his fundraising for the Afghan Mujahedeen during their war against the Soviets in the 1980s, says Bruce Reidel of the Brookings Institution. One of Salman’s sons, Reidel reports, “led the first RSAF mission against Islamic State targets in Syria last year.”
But while oil futures soared on the news of Abdullah’s death as traders worried about potential instability in Saudi Arabia, former U.S. officials viewed the collapse of central governing authority in Yemen as the real cause for concern. “Rule number one of contemporary national security policy is allow the emergence of no new failed states,” says former State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Amb. Daniel Benjamin.
The power vacuum is most worrying because it imperils U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism operations against one of the few al Qaeda off shoots that retains the U.S. as its primary target. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has a talented bomb-maker in its upper ranks, a Saudi fugitive named Ibrahim al Asiri. U.S. officials believe al Asiri is behind several near-miss attempts to bring down Western airliners, at least one of which was foiled by a Saudi double agent who had penetrated the group.
The Houthis are only a threat to the U.S. insofar as they appear to have effected the ouster of the U.S.-backed Hadi and left a collapsed state in his wake. “We were banking on a guy who was very pro-American, but had far less support in his country than we thought,” says Whitley Bruner, a former CIA Baghdad station chief who previously served in Yemen and has worked as a security consultant there in recent years.
The Saudis dislike both the Houthis and AQAP, which dispatched al Asiri’s brother in a suicide attack that nearly killed the Saudi Interior Minister in 2009. But the kingdom has little chance of putting its neighbor back together again: with Yemen’s history of sectarian, tribal and ideological violence, “it’s going to get worse,” says Bruner. AFP reported late Thursday that “four provinces of Yemen’s formerly independent south, including its main city Aden, say they will defy all military orders from Sanaa” now that the capital has fallen to the Houthis.
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RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA — When wayward Saudi princes misbehaved, they ended up in Salman’s private jail.During the 48 years that he was governor of Riyadh, from 1963 to 2011, now-King Salman maintained a small jail on the grounds of his official palace, where he would lock up royals who ran afoul of the law.Read full article >>
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