John Mickelthwaite and others at Bloomberg do an excellent job explaining Saudi Arabia’s plan for a sovereign mega fund: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-01/saudi-arabia-plans-2-trillion-megafund-to-dwarf-all-its-rivals
“Over a five-hour conversation, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman laid out his vision for the Public Investment Fund, which will eventually control more than $2 trillion and help wean the kingdom off oil.”
Me: Lower oil prices actually work in favor of the young reformers in Saudi Arabia creating an urgency for change and the end of business as usual. A long term plan to maximize the value of oil reserves would also support a low oil price regime to maintain market share among other oil producers and to keep clean tech alternatives at bay for as long as possible. And, as countries dependent on oil revenues look to adjust budget expenditures, might we see less exporting of “gross national power” in the region?
I am not optimistic that anything significant will come out of Doha (seems to be the consensus); the 35 to 43 price range expectations mentioned a few posts ago is still good…
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