Locator: 44888SAUDI.
From the link:
Saudi Arabia’s plan to slash oil production by around 10% may hit its finances hard.
Sunday’s decision, which will see the kingdom lower crude output to 9 million barrels a day next month and perhaps beyond, has failed to boost prices much. Oil futures have risen less than 1% since Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman announced the unilateral cut after an OPEC+ meeting.
The prince, speaking in Vienna, described it as a “lollipop” for other members of the producers’ cartel.
The kingdom’s fiscal outlook was worsening even before this weekend. The budget was in deficit for the past two quarters as oil dipped, while spending on salaries and massive tourism and infrastructure projects soared.
Riyadh will need an oil price of almost $81 a barrel to balance its books this year, which is above Brent’s current level of around $77.
The situation is starker when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s giga-projects such as the new city of Neom are taken into account. The IMF mostly excludes those because they’re largely funded by the sovereign wealth fund and other state entities, rather than directly from the government’s budget.
If those are included, Saudi Arabia’s breakeven oil price rises to $95 a barrel.
The Saudi government is more optimistic and expects to post an annual fiscal surplus of $4.3 billion for this year. The kingdom was the fastest-growing economy in the Group of 20 last year, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine roiled energy markets and pushed oil above $125 a barrel. It also pumped an average of 10.5 million barrels a day, an annual record.
Much more at the link.
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Putin's War
I've lost the bubble on this, so I may be wrong. I don't follow the Tucker Carlson story very closely (actually at all), but it's my understanding that Tucker Carlson and GOP MAGA politicos are on the side of Putin on this one: wanting the US to stop supporting Zelensky. I honestly don't know. I've lost the bubble on this one. Briefly fact-checking Fox News suggests I'm not far off.
From my perspective, if accurate, many times worse than Jane Fonda.
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Stickley
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