Even five years ago, Saudi Arabia was in an economically enviable position. A few unsettling trends were unfolding: hybrid and electric cars were becoming more common and oil companies were driving wells across the shale basins of the US. But neither green vehicles nor shale oil was price competitive with their conventional predecessors, and Brent crude, the global oil price benchmark, was over $100.
No one envies the Saudi Arabians now. Yes, the Brent price has rebounded from its of 2015-16 lows to stabilise over $50. At the Opec meeting in Vienna this week the delegates agreed to extend production curbs for another nine months.
But the long-term supply and demand dynamics for oil continue to be at best unpredictable and at worst simply bearish. This is the reason for, and the greatest threat to, Saudi efforts to reform its unbalanced economy. Saudi Arabia must be weaned off oil; yet that process, which is causing domestic tension, can only be made palatable by oil money.