Ahmad Zaki Yamani

1930 -

Saudi official influential in world petroleum politics in the 1960s and 1970s.

Born in Mecca in 1930, Ahmad Zaki Yamani was educated at Cairo, New York, and Harvard universities. He began working for the government of Saudi Arabia in 1958 and rose to become minister of petroleum and mineral resources in 1962, a post he held until 1986. He is noted for his success in asserting Saudi control over the country's oil resources, helping to establish the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), and increasing the profits of oil-producing countries through asserting their rights to set production and pricing policies. He was instrumental in establishing the General Petroleum and Mineral Organization (PETROMIN), a Saudi company created to develop oil resources, and the College of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran. In response to Israel's victory in the October 1973 War, Yamani succeeded in leading an embargo of oil shipments by Arab producers to the United States and other supporters of Israel. He served as secretary-general of OAPEC in 1968 and 1969 and was seen as a prominent voice for moderation in the organization. In 1986 he established the Centre for Global Energy Studies.

— ANTHONY B. TOTH