Bush To Push Saudi On Oil In Mideast Talks?

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–The last time U.S. President George Bush met face-to-face with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, crude oil prices were nearly half their current price and Saudi oil output was 5% higher than it is now.

Bush heads off Tuesday for a Middle East trip aimed at advancing efforts for a negotiated peace between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. After the Holy Land, he stops in Bahrain and Egypt and OPEC members Kuwait, the UAE and Saudi Arabia before returning to Washington on Jan. 16. Oil markets will be watching closely for signs on whether he leans on the Saudis to open the spigots.


The meeting with the leader of the world’s biggest oil exporter – the first since the Saudi king came to Bush’s Texas ranch in April 2005 – comes next week.

Despite crude oil prices reaching $100 a barrel in the U.S., the world’s largest oil consumer, in recent days, energy issues are only one of several interlocking agenda items, along with the peace process, Iraq, Iran and, most likely, a major arms sale, analysts said.

Bush’s national security advisor took 30 questions about the upcoming trip at a Jan. 3 press briefing: Not one was about oil.

Dow Jones