THOSE POOR, POOR SAUDIS
LET THEM DRINK THEIR OIL…RSK
Saudi Poor Mouth
Posted 10/14/2009 07:14 PM ET
Petropolitics: If there’s a bright spot to greenhouse gasbags curtailing carbon output, it’s watching the Saudis squirm. The sheiks worry they may have to make do with one or two fewer yachts.
During recent U.N. talks over global emissions cuts, Saudi Arabia quietly demanded that OPEC states get special financial aid if a new climate pact calls for big cuts in fossil-fuel use.
The kingdom’s whimpering comes despite a new International Energy Agency report showing OPEC revenues would still grow $23 trillion between 2008 and 2030 — a fourfold jump compared with the 1985-2007 period — if countries agree to slash carbon output and thereby cut their use of oil.
But trillions more in cartel cash aren’t enough for Saudi royalty. Flush with petrodollars from the huge run-up in crude prices last year, they’re suddenly crying poor mouth.
“We are among the economically vulnerable countries,” whined Mohammad Al Sabban, head of the Saudi delegation to the U.N. talks, which come ahead of December negotiations in Copenhagen for a treaty to replace the Kyoto protocol expiring in 2012.
“This is very serious for us,” he continued. “We are in the process of diversifying our economy, but this will take a long time. We don’t have too many resources.”
In the process of diversifying? The Bush administration helped bring the Saudis into the WTO several years ago to do just that — diversify their economy. Not only are they making little progress there, but they’re bucking WTO rules to open their market to foreign competitors.
The palace princes also sat on their gowns during the oil glut of the mid-1980s. Their diversification plan involved making domestic caviar, while waiting for oil prices to come back.
Today, oil still accounts for more than 90% of Saudi exports and almost 75% of government revenues. Nonoil industry contributes just 10% to Saudi GDP and less than 6% of total employment.
Saudi Arabia sits atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves. Thanks to a sharp rise in petro revenues following the 1973 oil embargo, it became one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
Yet its per-capita GDP ranks among the world’s lowest.
Until recently, only one in five Saudis owned a PC. Its benighted people suffer chronically high (12%) unemployment, while the royals who rule over them jet around the world — from palace to English manor to Aspen ski chalet to Med resort and back to palace (talk about a “carbon footprint”).
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