Oil prices could rise in the near term on volatility
by Barbara Kollmeyer
Market Watch
He was known to some as the Alan Greenspan of the oil world.
That is Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s powerful oil minister who was fired from his post on Saturday. He will be replaced by Khalid-al Falih, the chairman of the country’s state oil company Saudi Aramco.
“This is a historic one. This is the guy who for all intents and purposes has been the global oil market for the last 30 years,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group, of al-Naimi.
Al-Naimi gained global respect for turning the biggest oil cartel in the world, otherwise known as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), into a respectable organization, said Flynn, in a telephone interview.