Saudi has now set up a deal to sell oil to
Russia (itself, a big oil producer). The deal
is controlled by ROSNEFT, which also has
a similar deal with Iran. Together, these two
deals are creating a non-dollar pool for oil –
which is pissing the Americans off. The
Saudis have also bought missiles from
Russia and China and China has offered
much-needed capital investment to Saudi.
ARAMCO, the Saudi state oil company
could allow the Chinese to buy shares
worth $200 billion, which would give the
Chinese the right to buy Saudi oil in Yuan.
China has already created “swaps” with
Iran, thus eliminating the dollar from bi-
lateral trade. It can’t be far off making a
similar deal with Saudi.
King Salman visits Russia
In August 2017 Crown Prince Mohammed
Bin Salman visited China and signed 15
trade agreements, including a $700m arms
deal. In October 2017 King Salman visited
Russia and signed a deal to purchase
Russian “400 defence system” for $3bn.
Analysts have questioned Saudi’s “official”
oil reserves, which have remained at 260bn
barrels for 35 years. During that time the
Saudis have been the world’s largest oil
exporters and this has led analysts to
suggest its reserves are now half that
figure. The Saudi-Yemen war and resulting
carnage is Saudi’s bid to take control of
Yemen’s unexploited oil reserve. Although
the Saudis don’t like the Houthis, this war
is about oil, and nothing else.
$200bn Ransom
The de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, Crown
Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has
arrested many members of the country’s
elite including Royals, senior military
officers, influential businessmen,
government ministers etc. They are held at
the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Riyadh and other
5* hotels across the capital in a bid,
basically, to ransom them for at least
$200bn to regain their freedom, in an
emergency stop-gap resolution to the
Kingdom’s liquidity problem. We can only
wonder what will happen to the economy in
the next few years.
Saudi is being pressurised by the West to
end its involvement in the civil war in
Yemen, but most of the death and suffering
of the Yemeni people comes as a result of
the UK’s arming of the Kingdom for
decades.
China and Russia are exerting pressure on
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