Saudi oil minister who shaped the 1973 oil weapon and was a leading voice in OPEC for a quarter century
Born in Mecca, the son of a scholar of Islamic law, Yamani studied law in Cairo, at New York University and at Harvard. In 1962 he replaced Abdullah Tariki as Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and served four kings until 1986. He led the creation of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) in 1968, and in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 proposed the graduated production cuts and pressed OPEC to quadruple the price of crude. He negotiated the Saudi takeover of Aramco, and in December 1975 he and the other OPEC ministers were taken hostage in Vienna by Carlos the Jackal. King Fahd dismissed him in October 1986; in 1990 he founded the Centre for Global Energy Studies.
Also known as: Sheikh Yamani
Activities and affiliations
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1958–1962
Saudi Arabia state institutionsLegal adviser to the government
Law and justice -
1962–1986
Saudi Arabia state institutionsMinister of Petroleum and Mineral ResourcesMain
Economy, finance and planning
Career Timeline
- 1958Adviser to the Saudi government
- 1962.03–1986.10Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources
- 1968Led the founding of OAPEC
- 1973.10Proposed graduated production cuts
- 1975.12Taken hostage at the OPEC meeting in Vienna
- 1990Founded the Centre for Global Energy Studies