Former Saudi oil minister dies at 90

Former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, a key player behind the 1973 oil embargo, died yesterday aged 90 after a long career that laid the foundations of the kingdom’s energy sector.

Yamani, dubbed by local papers as the “godfather of black gold”, died in London, said stateowned El-Ekhbariya television, without giving the cause.

It said he will be buried in the holy city of Makkah, in western Saudi Arabia, where he was born.

In 1973, he was a key player in Opec’s decision to raise oil prices in protest at Israel’s occupation of Arab land seized in 1967, sparking a world economic crisis.

Two years later, he was among oil ministers kidnapped by militants led by the infamous Carlos the Jackal at an Opec meeting in Vienna.

Yamani, who served as oil minister from 1962 until 1986, was the first Saudi representative in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).

He played a pivotal role in the nationalisation of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, led today by energy giant Aramco.

“He masterminded the negotiations through which Saudi Arabia purchased Aramco from its American owners – a key move which assured no loss in revenue or disruption in the flow of oil,” Ellen R Wald, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center, tweeted yesterday. He had a number of degrees from various institutions, including Cairo University, New York University and Harvard.