Saudi price war looks like unspoken gift to Trump

Oil barely garnered a mention from US President Donald Trump during his glitzy visit to Saudi Arabia this week. But the black gold may explain why the trip went so smoothly.

- Ron Bousso

Mr Trump lavished praise on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MbS, in his speech on Tuesday at an investment summit in Riyadh as the kingdom unveiled a US$600 billion package for investment in the United States, and Mr Trump touted a $142 billion defence deal.

Yet there was no public mention of the main thing that has tied the two countries together over the past century: oil.

For decades, Washington and Riyadh have nurtured close ties based on Saudi Arabia's pivotal role in the oil market and America’s strategic interests in the Middle East. This translated into hundreds of billions of dollars of military and economic support for Saudi Arabia over the years.

For decades, Saudi Arabia was a major supplier of crude oil to the United States, with imports peaking at 2.2 million barrels per day in 2003, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. But with the surge in domestic US oil production in the Gulf of Mexico and onshore shale basins in recent decades, Saudi exports gradually slid to around 275,000 bpd in 2024, less than 1.5% of total US consumption.

The decline in American dependence on Saudi petroleum had caused some US politicians to question the alliance, including Mr Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, who sought to make Saudi Arabia a pariah over the country’s human rights record.