That was a different world, a bygone era!
Exactly 30 years ago, this very week, the OPEC headquarters on Vienna’s Ringstrasse was the scene of a major drama — almost a chapter out of Hollywood. The energy fraternity was faced with its worst crisis.
At stake were the lives of the people who then virtually controlled the taps of the global crude output. As the Austrian capital was bracing up for Christmas and New year celebrations, and while the OPEC ministers were in session at its headquarters, precisely at 11:15 a.m. on Dec. 21 six people — five men and a woman — stormed into the conference room and took almost 70 people hostage — apparently for ransom.
The list of the hostages included literally “who’s who” of the global energy fraternity then. Heavyweights such as the then Saudi Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani were among the hostages. Others attending the OPEC ministerial moot and thus also taken hostage included oil ministers from Algeria, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.
And mind it; oil was an extremely precious commodity then. Oil prices were in the upswing and the global dependence on OPEC was considerably higher than today in many respects.
The global industrial machine was used to cheap oil and strengthening oil markets were a point of real concern for the consumers. Already faced with a number of crises and in the midst of a recession, the global economies were in no way ready to face this new crisis.
Led by Carlos, a Venezuelan national with the given name at birth of Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez, the hostage-takers, however, claimed to be acting for the fulfillment of their progressive and revolutionary ideas, on behalf of the “Arm of the Arab Revolution.”
After taking complete control of the meeting room, Carlos addressed his hostages in Arabic condemning Israel, PLO, oil producing Gulf Arab states and the then Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
Hostages were later divided into three distinct groups. Delegates of “friendly countries” were moved toward the door of the meeting hall, the “neutrals” were placed in the center of the room and the “enemies” were placed along the back wall, next to a stack of explosives.
The last group included those from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar and the UAE. Carlos, the jackal, publicly vowed to kill the OPEC heavy weights Zaki Yamani and Jamshid Amuzegar of Iran.
Then on the second day of the ordeal, under a deal with the Austrian government, the hostage-takers were provided with a small DC-9 airplane and crew. With explosives packed under the seats of the Saudi and the Iranian oil ministers the plane initially flew into Algiers, where they were received by the then young Algerian Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika — the current Algerian president. Here after discussions all the 30 non-Arab hostages, minus Amuzegar were let go by the captors.
After refueling at Algiers, the plane with its remaining hostages landed at Tripoli, where some other hostages were also released. And now with only 10 hostages remaining on board, including the OPEC heavy weights, and unable to find a bigger plane which could go nonstop to Baghdad or even Yemen, the aircraft flew back to Algiers. Here after some discussions a deal was struck resulting in the release of all the remaining hostages including Yamani and Amuzegar.
Terms of the agreement were not made public. And thus curtain finally fell on that almost 40-hour long terse drama, that shook the already tension-packed energy world then.
But indeed the chapter belonged to an altogether different world. The oil industry was then in a flux in all spheres. It was generating lot emotions all around. Within the producers too the emotions were very young and strong.
There were groups who felt that, oil the national asset, was not being utilized properly. Hence revolution appeared the only answer.
Political considerations all around carried their way and ruled the energy world. The talk of using oil as weapon to achieve political objectives was still fresh in air. Among the revolutionaries, to be found all around the region then, the very idea appeared as an effective tool to redeem some of the lost nationalistic pride.
Having tasted the oil power in the wake of the1973 Arab-Israeli conflict, the very feeling that “the oil weapon” could be used effectively to bring the “adversaries” on kneels was great. Confrontation thus appeared to be the key to success and glory.
No more any further!
The world has changed and changed drastically since then, and so has the oil equation too. Oil is no more a political weapon. Confrontation is not the buzz word in the industry in the present circumstances.
The producers too know very well they cannot afford it now. Everyone now concedes oil is a commercial commodity and has to have a market, if the almost single product economies of most of the oil producers have to flourish. Killing the goose that lays golden egg does not make any sense now.
Coordination and cooperation between the consumers and the producers’ is thus the call of the day. The political rhetoric of past is now history, in real, real sense. An era of dialogue and deliberations is thus emerging from the ashes of the old crude equation — between the consumers and the producers.
And in comes the idea of International Energy Forum Secretariat. Interestingly, the Forum is hosted by none other than the OPEC kingpin — Saudi Arabia. Who could have thought it so some 30 years ago? The very presence of IEFS in Riyadh magnificently underpins the fact that things in the energy world have gone full circle over the last three decades or so. It is indeed a different world, in many, many senses!