Your Middle East: Saudi doesn’t want to talk about the shale boom

“Please talk about anything else.” Saudi officials may not want to talk about the global shale energy boom, but the rest of the industry cannot stop chattering about the exportation of the US shale phenomenon.

The US oil and gas industry has been dramatically transformed in the last five years by technology that allows producers to drill horizontally and extract oil and gas from previously impenetrable shale formations.

At the May 31st meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Saudi oil minister, Ali al-Naimi was asked one too many times about the shale revolution:

“Why are you all excited all of a sudden on shale? You know why, because you like to chit chat…you are an agent of disturbance,” he said, pointing a finger at his questioner. “Leave us alone and leave all these issues. We had enough of shale oil and talks of shale. Please talk about anything else,” he said, switching from English to Arabic.

The interaction was the first indication of anxiety on the part of Saudi officials. Saudi representatives have claimed the shale boom will stabilize oil markets and assuage fears of reliance on Middle East oil or “peak” oil, claiming that the boom is a positive development in the industry that they fear not. MORE