VIENNA: Ibrahim Al-Muhanna, top adviser and media handler for two Saudi oil ministers over nearly a quarter of a century, is about to retire.
As the voice behind the scenes for the biggest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, a few words from a late night briefing with Al-Muhanna flashed across news wire screens could move world oil prices in seconds.
He first appeared on the OPEC scene in November 1989 as adviser to then Saudi Oil Minister Hisham Nazer at a meeting in Vienna, home to the producer group’s headquarters.
Former Reuters correspondent Nick Moore, an OPEC hand since the days of Saudi Oil Minister Sheikh Zaki Yamani, worked out with Al-Muhanna a formulation for how to attribute his comments. He became “a Gulf source familiar with Saudi oil policy.”
US-educated Al-Muhanna kept a low profile, quietly communicating Saudi Arabia’s views to small groups of reporters and analysts gathered in a discreet corner of a plush Vienna hotel.
His career, alongside Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ali Al-Naimi, spanned the crash in oil prices to $ 10 a barrel in 1998 and a market rescue orchestrated by Riyadh that eventually saw crude surge to a record high $ 147 in 2008.
With oil prices now bang in line with Saudi Arabia’s preferred $ 100 a barrel, today’s OPEC meeting in Vienna may be his last.
However, that does not mean his boss is moving on yet. Oil Minister since 1995, Al-Naimi shows no signs of slowing down.
In Vienna yesterday, a Gulf source familiar with Saudi oil policy declined comment.
Top KSA oil adviser bowing out
