Time to Make Nice

Washington is seeking to recalibrate its relationship with Riyadh as oil prices soar

- Sylvia Westall, Grant Smith, and Anthony Di Paola

When campaigning for president, Joe Biden vowed to turn Saudi Arabia into a “pariah” over the brutal killing of a newspaper columnist. Once in the White House, he temporarily froze weapons sales to the kingdom over its war in Yemen. He also outlined a vision to make the US a renewable energy powerhouse, less reliant on an oil market where the Saudis hold so much sway.

But with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine posing the biggest disruption to energy supplies in decades, the president is having to take a different tack, recalibrating an alliance that is increasingly critical to the global economy and that is at its most strained in years.

With the oil market in turmoil, the world’s biggest exporter of crude once again has the leverage to make demands. It’s raking in $1 billion a day from oil, and Saudi Arabia’s economy, alongside India’s, is predicted to grow the fastest of any Group of 20 nation.

A glimmer of reconciliation came on June 2, when OPEC+, a group of major oil producers effectively led by the Saudis, agreed to accelerate output increases after months of rebuffing US entreaties. The unexpected move is an important first step in a global push to target Russian exports with sanctions. Biden is contemplating a visit to the kingdom in coming weeks as part of a wider trip to the Middle East.

“Both sides wanted to see relations stabilized,” says Bob McNally, president of Washington-based consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official under George W. Bush. “The president has rediscovered the importance of stable oil and gas prices—and specifically the critical role played by Saudi Arabia.”