Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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OPEC

From the Oil Weapon to Boycott, Mobilizing in Support of Palestine in the Gulf — Protesters during a solidarity sit-in with the Gaza Strip, in Manama, Bahrain, on November 17, 2023. Mazen Mahdi/AFP via Getty ImagesAn Instagram post by BDS Kuwait calling on people in the region to use the “weapon of boycott” against global companies enabling Israel’s war on Gaza.

MER Article

From the Oil Weapon to Boycott, Mobilizing in Support of Palestine in the Gulf

50 years after the 1973 oil embargo, some Gulf citizens oppose normalization with their wallets.

Samar Alwan • 5 min read

Saudi Arabia’s Weaponization of Oil Abundance — An oil tanker is being loaded at Saudi Aramco's Ras Tanura oil refinery and oil terminal in Saudi Arabia

Current Analysis

Saudi Arabia’s Weaponization of Oil Abundance

Saudi Arabia and Russia cooperated for years to maintain the value of their chief export—oil. This month, that collusion collapsed into a price war with both countries unexpectedly boosting production. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and China's decreasing oil demands, fears of an uncertain

Gregory Brew • 11 min read

MER Article

The Gulf Comes Down to Earth

Between the summer of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, oil prices plummeted from a high of $147 per barrel to a low of $33. This extraordinary reversal of fortune announced the end of the second oil boom for the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Ar

Kristen Smith Diwan, Fareed Mohamedi • 21 min read

MER Article

Oil and the Middle East

The contemporary international political economy of oil presents a puzzle: political instability in regions where oil is found coexists with steadily falling prices. This combination of continuing political conflict and uncertainty in the Middle East (particularly the Gulf), and the continuing slide

Simon Bromley • 13 min read

MER Article

OPEC Since the Gulf War

Since August 1990, OPEC has been living in a dream world. For the last year and a half, 6 million barrels per day (bpd) of production capacity have been off the market: Iraqi output has been embargoed, Kuwait’s oil facilities were destroyed and the largest non-OPEC producer, the former

Fareed Mohamedi • 7 min read

MER Article

Ten Years After

It is still possible, even likely, that history will take note of the remarkable events of late 1973 and early 1974: Egyptian troops crossed the Suez Canal and penetrated the supposedly impregnable Bar Lev line in a matter of hours; the kings and presidents of the Arab oil producing states, led by F

Joe Stork • 13 min read