Career
Yamani returned to the Ministry of Finance, joining the new Department of Zakat and Income Tax. The same year Yamani founded his own law firm sharing his name.
In 1959, Yamani was invited by Prince Faisal, then Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to work as a legal adviser to his office. However, when King Saud returned to full power in 1960 with the support of the Free Princes, Faisal resigned as Prime Minister and Yamani returned to his law practice and began teaching at the University of Riyadh. According to Yamani, King Saud then offered him the position of Oil Minister but this was declined. Several months later a new cabinet was formed with Faisal as Crown Prince and Deputy Prime Minister and in March 1962 the incumbent Oil Minister and founding father of OPEC, Abdallah Tariki, was replaced by Ahmed Zaki Yamani.
Although clearly distinguished from his fiery predecessor by both his supporters and detractors, Yamani had a common goal with Tariki in moving toward the nationalisation of Aramco, the operating oil company in the country. In 1962 The General Petroleum and Mineral Organization (Petromin) was established, designed to become the national oil company. In 1964 University of Petroleum and Minerals was established, with the aim of producing Saudis with the skills to manage this company in the future. However, Yamani's plans for increased Saudi control of oil resources were only made public in 1968 during a speech at the American University in Beirut (AUB), where he talked of 'participation' as opposed to nationalisation. Following OPEC negotiations in 1972, the Saudi government bought 25% owenership of Aramco. From 1974, Saudi participation increased to 60% and in 1976 total Saudi ownership was agreed, with payments completed in 1980.
As Oil Minister of oil rich Saudi Arabia, Yamani took an important role in the development of the newly created OPEC. From early on, Yamani is noted as having a 'moderate' oil policy. Faced with the 1967 Arab-Israeli War Yamani spoke against the use of an Arab oil embargo, to the displeasure of Israel's Arab neighbours and Iraq in particular. The action was ineffective, although the experience led to a consideration of the possible political benefits of an Arab-only oil organisation. Yamani took the lead role in the development of this idea and in 1968 the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries was joined by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Libya. Several other countries joined in 1970 and Egypt, Syria and militant Iraq joined in the early 1970s.
Read more about this topic: Ahmed Zaki Yamani
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