China And Saudi Arabia Intensify Energy Cooperation With Critical Deal

China uses Russia's new leverage over Saudi Arabia and OPEC to deploy its own strategy to accrete and exploit power over the Middle East's huge oil and gas reserves.

• The signing last week of a multi-pronged memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) and the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) is a critical step in China's ongoing strategy to secure Saudi Arabia as a client state.

The basis of this enduring relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, as analysed in depth in my new book on the global oil markets, had been struck back in 1945 at a meeting on 14 February 1945 between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Saudi King at the time, Abdulaziz.

• The US would receive all of the oil supplies it needed for as long as Saudi had oil in place, in return for which the US would guarantee the security both of the ruling House of Saud and, by extension, of Saudi Arabia.
• The landmark deal survived the 1973 Oil Crisis - in which the Saudi-led OPEC placed an embargo on oil exports to various countries that had continued to supply arms to Israel during the Yom Kippur War against it and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria
• Washington knew its days of being able to count on Saudi Arabia in any meaningful way were over when Russia emerged at the end of 2016 to support the then-beleaguered Saudi Arabia and OPEC in future oil production deals

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/China-And-Saudi-Arabia-Intensify-Energy-Cooperation-With-Critical-Deal.html