Sweet and Sour: Let your money do the talking

Last week a Gulf News reader wrote a letter to the editor suggesting that Arab states use oil as a means of pressure against states supporting Israel, the old oil weapon that was used once in 1973 and not so successfully at that.

The reader wrote: "Turning off the flow of oil to all countries that support Israel would change the minds of these nations at once. That's real power."

While this is only a dream that is unlikely to see the dawn of day, it does reflect the frustrations of many in the Middle East who wonder at the inability of their governments to use their clout, given that this region is a repository for more than half the world's crude oil reserves.

While there is no serious talk this century of using oil as a weapon, there is some argument to be made here for the mobilisation of oil as a positive tool with which to communicate a message to the world that still depends on fossil fuels for its development.

Just hours before boarding a flight to Vienna last week to attend an Opec meeting, I was speaking at a seminar in Dubai about the Middle East's communications challenge and the ways in which the Arab world could reverse the negative image of the Arab that has taken hold in the West.

Summary

Since energy is a subject that I am most familiar with, I chose to draw some examples from my experiences as an energy journalist. This is a summary of my presentation.

The Opec meeting I attended in Vienna on March 31 was the second Opec meeting so far this year. There will be another one in Beirut in June and possibly one or two more meetings before the year is out.

Why? You ask. Have these people not heard of telephones? One answer is that where the Opec ministers go, so does the world's media and it is the publicity value that this group seeks and gets.

There is a small band of specialized journalists who cover every single one of these meetings. My organization sends six people to each meeting. We fly people in from New York, Caracas, London, Paris and Dubai.

The other financial news agencies also send armies of journalists armed with telephones and walkie talkies so they can dictate to their editors every soundbite.

It is real time information that hits the world's trading screens instantaneously. It is a media circus and people get hurt in the scrums.

So if you thought Opec had become irrelevant think again. It is true that this is not the 1970s when Zaki Yamani was a media darling with one of the most recognizable faces on the planet but oil traders and politicians still care about what Opec does.

I say all this because Opec is seen as an Arab-dominated organization and when an Arab oil minister speaks, a lot of people listen.

Why? Because he speaks with the weight of billions of barrels of crude oil behind him. Because the government he represents owns a commodity that the world wants. I am not talking here about the oil weapons.

It would be a foolish person indeed who even considered that as a possibility. Even that most revolutionary Arab, Muammar Gaddafi has gone soft and Saddam is out of power so no chance of that idea rearing its head.

The world energy scene has changed and crude oil production is no longer majority controlled by governments while an international oil market ensures that no one side can control the price of oil or quantities of oil supply.

Positive way

But the Saudi-dominated Opec does produce one third of the world's crude oil and as a group does tend to give strong price direction by tailoring its supply in reaction to, or to preempt, certain market moves. Therein lies its power. So why is the Arab voice not heard?

Part of the answer of course is that the media in the West, and here we are really talking about the United States, is not very receptive to the Arab message.

Nine-eleven was a massive blow to moderate Islam but I will not dwell on that as enough has been written about the horrific sequence of events that will shape US policy for a long time to come.

But money buys airtime and public relations firms. In this region lies an abundance of riches and not all of it lies under the ground.

There has to be a way of harnessing this wealth in a positive way to be used as a dowry for creating world alliances. If money talks, why is this immensely wealthy region still so silent?

The writer is Middle East editor of Platts, energy information division of the McGraw-Hill Companies. The opinions in this column reflect those of the author and not of Platts