Riyadh: The 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman who will take over the throne after current Ruler of Saudi King Salman abdicates is seen to be preparing well before he takes the throne subjecting his relatives to detentions indicating it sure is ‘Game of Thrones’ battle in Saudi Arabia.
The anti-corruption committee formed by King Salman was directed to look into various Royal Saudi families, a move that reportedly could cause tensions in the region for the time being along with elevating the oil prices.
This so-called corruption blow directed at the country’s influential royal families along with elite personalities is seen as the Crown prince’s effort to secure his power within the royal family as well as with the country’s allies before he takes the throne.
The committee’s security forces were ordered to inspect 11 princes, including well-known billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, four ministers, including the one in charge of the National Guard which also followed with the arrests of the former Ministers.
Speaking of which Global head of commodity strategy for RBC Capital Markets Helima Croft said, “Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman’s (MBS’) Saturday night purge represents a stunning political development in Saudi Arabia and a shot across the bow at the old establishment”, adding that, “The key question now is whether MBS has launched or preempted a new destabilizing ‘Game of Thrones’ by arresting his relatives in such dramatic fashion.”
Following the inspection into the royal families did have elevated the Oil prices since the Brent crude oil futures jumped to their highest this Sunday evening ever since July 2015while the U.S. WTI futures also went up to $55.82 per barrel following the drama.
According to Analyst Croft, the short-term and medium-term outlook for oil will definitely have a good impact, who is also one of the most widely-followed commodity analysts on Wall Street.
According to the analysts Prince Mutaib bin Abdullah Saudi Arabian National Guard Head, the impact of his detention this Saturday is seen as a struggle which is much bigger than it looks.
“While MBS’ supporters insist that Saturday’s move had absolutely nothing to do with staving off a coup and maintain that it was entirely about eradicating corruption, detaining Mutaib does also seemingly serve a broader power consolidation agenda,” wrote Croft.
Adding that, “The fact that private airstrips were closed on Saturday also does suggest that more high-level arrests may be looming.”
According to the past events in the History of Saudi Arabia when ever there has been a turmoil within Saudi Arabia the oil Prices has always risen following these events. If the young prince is ultimately trying to fight extremism, there could be protests led by clerics among the population.
The CNBC has looked into the after-effects of the major protests within Saudi Arabia which have shown the rise in international crude benchmark which went up high by 2.7 percent higher, according to Kensho which was followed by the US whose crude prices went up with a 2 percent rise.
According to the RBC, the medium-term outlook will also have a great impact on oil since the crown prince is likely to uphold and extend the OPEC production cuts.
Croft says, “In terms of oil, there was no talk of returning to market share in Riyadh last week and $60/bbl Brent provides a more optimal enabling environment for many of MBS’ key initiatives to remake the economy”.
“Hence, we continue to see Saudi Arabia actively supporting market management, extending the OPEC cut deep into 2018, and moving ahead with the planned sale of a stake in Aramco.”
Saudi rulers likely also would like to keep oil prices stable ahead of the planned IPO of state oil company Saudi Aramco expected next year.
The crown prince seems to be trying to diversify the kingdom away from its reliance on crude revenues. The Aramco IPO is also a part of that process.
The new $500 billion mega-city powered by renewable energy is also seen as a part of the same diversification plan. So far the Crown Prince seems to be winning this battle of “Game of Thrones” in Saudi Arabia.