Ahmed Zaki Yamani (Arabic: أحمد زكي يماني; 30 June 1930 – 23 February 2021) was a Saudi Arabian politician who served as Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources under four Saudi monarchs from 1962 to 1986, and a minister in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) for 25 years.
With degrees from institutions including New York University School of Law, Harvard Law School, and a doctorate from the University of Exeter, Yamani became a close adviser to the Saudi government in 1958 and then became oil minister in 1962. He is known for his role during the 1973 oil embargo, when he spurred OPEC to quadruple the price of crude oil.
In December 1975, Yamani and the other OPEC ministers were taken hostage by the terrorist Carlos (the Jackal) in Vienna, Austria. The hostages were released after two days riding an airplane across North Africa, even though Carlos was ordered by his superiors to execute Yamani and his Iranian counterpart Jamshid Amouzegar.
Yamani was dismissed as the oil minister by King Fahd in October 1986. In 1990, Yamani founded the Centre for Global Energy Studies, a market analysis group, and remained involved in private investments and cultural foundations until his death in 2021.
Ahmed Zaki Yamani was born in Mecca on 30 June 1930, the youngest of three children. His father, Hassan Yamani, was a Qadi in the Hejaz and a respected scholar of Islamic law, acting as Grand Mufti in Indonesia and Malaysia. His mother, Fatima Suruji, was a poet as well as a homemaker.
Yamani's grandfather was Grand Mufti in Turkey. The Yamani surname originates from Yemen from where his paternal ancestors originated.
Yamani earned a bachelor's degree in law at King Fouad I University in Cairo in 1951. Next, the Saudi government sent Yamani to New York University's Comparative Law Institute for non-American lawyers at NYU Law School and in 1955 he received a master's degree in comparative jurisprudence. With the help of an NYU professor, Yamani spent the next year at Harvard Law School earning his second master's in 1956.
Yamani returned to the Saudi Ministry of Finance, joining the new Department of Zakat and Income Tax. In 1959, Yamani was invited by Prince Faisal, then Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to work as a legal adviser to his office. When King Saud returned to full power in 1960 with the support of the Free Princes, however, 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 he 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, Abdullah Tariki, was replaced by Yamani.
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. Following OPEC negotiations in 1972, the Saudi government bought 25% ownership 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 Saudi Arabia, Yamani took an important role in the development of the newly created OPEC. Faced with the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Yamani spoke against the use of an Arab oil embargo. The 1967 embargo 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 Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) was joined by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Libya. Several other countries joined in 1970 and Egypt, Syria, and Iraq joined in the early 1970s.
During the Yom Kippur War, Yamani took the initiative and planned to drop oil production initially by 10 percent alongside other OPEC members, followed by 5 percent reductions each month. On 16 October, the six Persian Gulf members of OPEC met in Kuwait and took the decision to raise oil prices from US$3 to $5.12. This was the first time the producer countries had independently set the price of their oil. On the next day, the ten OAPEC members agreed to Yamani's moderate production cutback proposals. An embargo to countries seen as "hostile" was also recommended but not enforced, although by 22 October all OAPEC countries had placed an embargo on the United States, the Netherlands, and Denmark.
The production cutbacks, increased to 25 percent in November, affected the economic health of all Western powers. To gain political support, Yamani travelled through Europe, the United States, and Japan with Algerian oil minister Belaid Abdesselam. Both Yamani and OPEC became well known in the West, with Yamani described as "the man of the moment" in Newsweek International's 24 December 1973 cover article. Attempts by the United States at bringing together a consumer's cartel failed, and the EEC and Japan called on Israel to withdraw from Arab territories occupied in 1967.
On 22 December, the Persian Gulf members of OPEC met again in Tehran where the Shah, backed by the other states, urged that the price of oil be raised to over $20 a barrel. Yamani opposed this extreme increase, but could not contact Saudi Arabia from Tehran. Fearing a split in OPEC, Yamani decided on a compromise that put oil at $11.65, four times the price of a barrel prior to 16 October. Following progress with Arab-Israeli disengagement agreements, a decision was taken to end the embargo, which was formally lifted on 17 March 1974.
Saudi Arabia continued to push for price reductions from the $11.65 level, opposed by other OPEC members. This increasingly came to be seen as a pro-American stance by the other producers, although defended by Yamani as a safer option for the world economy. Saudi Arabia has been criticised for using its dominant position to force its own interests and its long-term production strategy, as a lower price enables the country to keep a high market share and discourages development of alternative energy sources that would curtail the worldwide demand for oil. To this point, Yamani famously said in 1973: "The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stones." (However, the quote may have been wrongly attributed by this and other sources.)
On 25 March 1975, King Faisal was shot dead by his nephew Faisal bin Musaid. The young prince had joined a Kuwaiti delegation, led by oil minister Abdul Mutaleb Kazimi, which Yamani had escorted to the King's office. Yamani was standing next to the King when the shots were fired and, after interrogation, it was discovered that Faisal bin Musaid also believed Yamani to have been shot dead in the attack. Yamani continued in his role as oil minister for another eleven years after the death of Faisal.
On 21 December 1975, Saudi Arabia's Yamani, Iran's Jamshid Amuzegar, and the other OPEC oil ministers were taken hostage at their semi-annual conference in Vienna, Austria. The attack, which killed three non-ministers, was carried out by a six-person team led by Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal, which included Gabriele Kröcher-Tiedemann, and Hans-Joachim Klein. The self-named "Arm of the Arab Revolution" group called for the liberation of Palestine. Carlos planned to take over the conference by force and hold for ransom all eleven attending oil ministers, except for Yamani and Amuzegar who were to be executed.
Carlos arranged bus and plane travel for his team and 42 of the original 63 hostages, with stops in Algiers and Tripoli, planning to fly eventually to Baghdad, where Yamani and Amuzegar were to be killed. All 30 non-Arab hostages were released in Algiers, excluding Amuzegar. Additional hostages were released at another stop in Tripoli before returning to Algiers. With only 10 hostages remaining, Carlos held a phone conversation with Algerian President Houari Boumédienne, who informed Carlos that the oil ministers' deaths would result in an attack on the plane. Boumédienne must also have offered Carlos asylum at this time and possibly financial compensation for failing to complete his assignment. Carlos expressed his regret at not being able to murder Yamani and Amuzegar, then he and his comrades left the plane. All the hostages and terrorists walked away from the situation, two days after it began.