Sheikh Yamani, longest-serving Saudi energy minister, dies aged 90
Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, a former Saudi energy minister who steered the kingdom’s oil policies for nearly 25 years, has died in London. He was 90.
Sheikh Yamani will be buried in Makkah, his birthplace. He was one of three children born to Hassan Yamani, a respected scholar of Islamic law who was at one point the Grand Mufti in Indonesia. His paternal ancestors came from Yemen.
He was minister of petroleum and mineral resources from 1962 to 1986 and was an influential figure both in the kingdom and at the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Sheikh Yamani entered the world stage during the 1973 Arab oil embargo of the US that lasted from October to March, 1974, and caused crude prices to soar.
Among Sheikh Yamani’s most notable remarks regarding the future of the oil industry is: “The Stone Age came to an end not for a lack of stones and the oil age will end, but not for a lack of oil.”
In 1975, the assassination of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, to whom Sheikh Yamani was close, deeply affected him, said Mai Yamani, 64, the eldest of his children.
Another defining moment was December 21, 1975, when along with a group of other Opec oil ministers, he was taken hostage by the Venezuelan terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, also known as Carlos the Jackal, and other militants, at a meeting of the group in Vienna, Austria.
The crisis ended two days later with three people dead. Anis Al Naqqash, one of the hostage takers, died this week in Damascus, Syria, from Covid-19.
Sheikh Yamani “was a master of diplomacy”, Ms Yamani, who was at his bedside when he died, told The National. “Carlos was telling him you have another 20 minutes and we’re going to kill you. He sat with him, discussed and debated him. And because he deeply believed in God, [he had faith].”
Former Saudi energy minister Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, who steered the kingdom’s oil policies for about 25 years, died in London at the age of 90.
He will be buried in Makkah, where he was born.
Sheikh Yamani was one of three children born to Hassan Yamani, a respected scholar of Islamic law and former grand mufti in Indonesia. His paternal ancestors came from Yemen.
“It is shocking; we still don’t believe it. It takes time,” Mai Yamani, 64, the eldest of his children, who was by his side when he died, told The National.
“Even with all the machines around him in the hospital, he was majestic.”
Sheikh Yamani served as minister of petroleum and mineral resources from 1962 to 1986 and was an influential figure in the kingdom and in Opec.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in law from Cairo University in 1951, followed by a master’s degree in law at New York University in 1955 before graduating from Harvard Law School in 1956. He spoke Arabic, English and French.
An early defining moment came at the age of six, when Sheikh Yamani saw his 90-yearold grandfather Said Yamani, an imam at the Great Mosque of Makkah, being carried on the shoulders of his students.
They carried him in reverence after he informed them that he could no longer teach them because of old age.
“That marked him, and he used to always tell me to read,” said Mai Yamani.
Another defining personality in his life was his mother Fatima who died at the age of 103.
“She had words of wisdom that you don’t get by doing a [doctorate]. She read and was a poet,” said Mai Yamani.
In 1963, Sheikh Yamani became the first chairman of the University of Petroleum and Minerals – now the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals – in Dhahran, and served in this capacity until 1976.
“I remember when I was a student, he was the global Saudi figure defending the interests of Saudi Arabia,” said Ihsan Bu Hulaiga, a prominent Saudi economist who attended the university.
“At a time when there was no multimedia or internet, you would read the Financial Times or The Wall Street Journal and he was visible.
“He was an eloquent spokesman, influential, very impactful. He was a visionary ... very capable in the hardest of times in representing the country and the Arab cause.”
Sheikh Yamani came on to the world stage during the 1973 Arab oil crisis that began in October of the same year and ended in March 1974. The crisis caused crude prices to rise from $3 a barrel to about $12.
“To the global oil industry, to politicians and senior civil servants, to journalists and to the world at large, [Sheikh] Yamani became the representative and, indeed, the symbol of the new age of oil,” Daniel Yergin wrote in The Prize, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize.
One of Sheikh Yamani’s most notable remarks regarding the future of the oil industry was “the Stone Age came to an end, not for a lack of stones, and the oil age will end, but not for a lack of oil”.
In 1975, the assassination of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, who Sheikh Yamani was close to, “deeply” affected him, according to Mai Yamani.
“Life changed for Ahmed Zaki Yamani after that.”
Another defining moment was on December 21, 1975, when he and other Opec oil ministers were taken hostage by Venezuelan terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, also known as Carlos the Jackal, and other militants as the group met in Vienna, Austria.
The crisis ended two days later with three people dead. Anis al-Naqqash, one of the hostage-takers, died on Monday in Damascus, Syria, from Covid-19.
Mai Yamani said her father was a master of diplomacy.
“Carlos was telling him you have another 20 minutes, and we are going to kill you,” she said, recalling her father’s account of the event. “He sat with him, discussed and debated him. And because he deeply believed in God [he had faith].”
Mai Yamani said her father “used to be free and go and sleep under a tree in the mountains; suddenly, he had bodyguards watching him all the time”.
In 1990, Sheikh Yamani launched the London-based Centre for Global Energy Studies, which carried out research on the global energy industry.
He also set up a foundation for the preservation and publication of old Arabic and Islamic manuscripts.
Sheikh Yamani’s life was not always about the law of supply and demand and oil.
He studied astrology and was a farmer and gardener who liked to grow roses. He was into musicology and sponsored musicians.
“In a way, it was all complimentary to oil,” said Mai Yamani.
An avid watch collector, Sheikh Yamani was the majority shareholder in the oldest Swiss watch manufacturer Vacheron Constantin in the 1980s.
“He was punctual. If he said he would call you back in 10 minutes, he did.”