Saudi Arabia has warned of a shift away from the U.S. [6]
Here’s the real reason: China just dethroned the U.S. as the world’s largest importer of oil.
As Oil Price notes [7]:
Last month the world witnessed a paradigm shift: China surpassed the United States as the world’s largest consumer of foreign oil, importing 6.3 million barrels per day compared to the United States’ 6.24 million. This trend is likely to continue and this gap is likely to grow [8], according to the EIA’s October short-term energy outlook. Wood Mackenzie, a leading global energy consultancy, echoed this prediction, estimating [9] Chinese oil imports will rise to 9.2 million barrels per day (70% of total demand) by 2020.
Forget Syria, Iran and Bahrain … the stated reasons for the Saudi shift.
Those are all real … but the much bigger driver is oil. Indeed, most geopolitical policy is based upon oil [10] (and here [11]) and gas [12].
BONUS: