Oil is an unusual commodity in that individual decisions can have an outsized effect on the market. OPEC+’s choice to increase production, for instance, might send prices falling, affecting both oil producers and consumers worldwide. What do the leading oil market players consider before making a fateful move?

Oil Leaders offers an unprecedented glimpse into the strategic thinking of top figures in the energy world from the 1980s through the recent past. Ibrahim AlMuhanna—a close adviser to four different Saudi oil ministers during that period—examines the role of individual and collective decision making in shaping market movements. He analyzes how powerful individuals made critical choices, tracking how they responded to the flow of information on pivotal market and political events and predicted reactions from allies and adversaries. AlMuhanna highlights how the media has played an increasingly important role as a conduit of information among multiple players in the oil market. Energy leaders have learned to manage the signals they send to the market and to other relevant players in order to avoid sending oil prices into a spiral.

AlMuhanna draws on personal familiarity with many of these individual decision makers as well as his participation in decades of closed-door sessions where crucial choices were made. Featuring revelatory behind-the-scenes perspective on pivotal oil market events and dynamics, this book is a must-read for practitioners and policy makers engaged with the global energy world.

"Oil Leaders provides useful insights into how Riyadh communicates with the market, suggesting
that the kingdom will continue to wield its reserves as both an economic and a political weapon in the
years to come." - Bloomberg

"[AlMuhanna's] revelations of governance and diplomacy are gold dust...such books are all too rare." - Financial Times

"Offers a rare view inside the Saudi government, providing insight into the forces behind Saudi policy." - H-Environment

"AlMuhanna provides recollections of meetings and stories of how negotiations developed, that readers would otherwise not have access to, as they would neither be recorded nor available in archives." - International Affairs

"Oil Leaders reveals the agency of individuals. Too often the perception is that impersonal market forces determine everything, but political leaders do matter and the decisions they make do have an impact." - Survival

"Recommended for students and researchers in political science, international relations, and Global Affairs, and economists and business personnel in oil production and marketing." - Arab Studies Quarterly