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Qatar Will Pull Out Of OPEC, As Rift With Saudi Arabia Deepens
Qatar plans to leave OPEC in January, shaking up the alliance of oil-producing nations and furthering its dispute with Saudi Arabia. Qatar made the announcement on Monday — the same day it informed OPEC.
Qatar's Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi said the small Persian Gulf country will leave OPEC because it wants to focus on natural gas — a sector in which Qatar is a world leader. But the move also draws another line of division with Saudi Arabia, the only country with which Qatar shares a land border.
Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Qatar in June of 2017, in a dramatic move that was matched by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and others. Since then, Saudi Arabia has maintained a boycott against Qatar, a country that has sometimes pursued its own foreign policy goals against the will of its fellow Sunni states.
[...] Qatar's exit from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will become official on Jan. 1, 2019, Kaabi said at a news conference in Doha Monday. The country will still attend the group's winter meeting in Vienna, which is scheduled to begin on Thursday.
See also: Qatar to quit OPEC after more than 57 years, denies decision related to Saudi-led boycott
(Score: 4, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Monday December 03 2018, @11:51PM (8 children)
Oil is on it's way out of course, because we're not making any new oil, but in the meantime the Saudis can make an awful lot more money from the reserves they have left.
My concern is their increasingly belligerent attitude towards anyone they feel might oppose them (mostly Shia muslims) and how the US feel the need to blindly back them come what may.
If history has taught us anything, it is that the CIA always makes things worse in the Middle East. I have no idea what the chances are of some sort of coup in Qatar, but if the Saudis decided they want one, would the CIA help? Probably.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 04 2018, @12:15AM (4 children)
the CIA always makes things worse in the Middle East.
Worse compared to what? Was it better off under the Ottomans or the Romans?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday December 04 2018, @12:22AM (3 children)
Yes to both.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 04 2018, @12:30AM (2 children)
:-) You were there, eh?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday December 04 2018, @01:58AM (1 child)
Oh. We're doing that are we?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 04 2018, @02:59AM
Um, what? comparing the present to the past? Or maybe the CIA, to say, the KGB (or whatever they call themselves now)? The middle east has to pick its poison, doesn't it? It's a giant prison yard. Business is business. 95% of the voters are ok with it. What am I supposed to say?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 04 2018, @05:04AM (1 child)
Oh, so you know exactly how oil is made in the Earth? Care to share with everyone?
(Score: 5, Touché) by Mykl on Tuesday December 04 2018, @06:11AM
Don't worry - it can't take that long to form. After all, the earth is only 6,000 years old, right?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by AnonTechie on Tuesday December 04 2018, @12:43PM
CIA makes things worse wherever they operate, not just in the Middle-East ...
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."