Leading oil producer in the region
The majority of Middle Eastern oil producing states are united withing the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which coordinated petroleum extraction quotas as well as oil pricing of its members. About 37.9 percent of today’s crude oil is produced by OPEC countries, with its founding member Saudi Arabia being the largest producer, producing over 12.2 million barrels per day.
Furthermore, Saudi Arabia also leads the Middle East in its crude oil distillation capacities with almost three million barrels per day. This is mainly carried out by the state-owned company Saudi Aramco. 2022, Saudi Aramco is one of the world’s most valuable companies with assets worth over 664.7 billion U.S. dollars.
Geopolitical development
Although the Middle East is the world’s leading energy exporter, exporting over 1.36 billion tons of oil equivalent, its countries are desperate to diversify its economies and end their dependence on oil. This is due to the global demand for fossil fuel having become quite volatile and is also prone to geopolitical and social events. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the recent past illustrates quite strongly how the economies of the Middle East are affected by the drop of the global oil demand, as well as the subsequent fall of oil prices in the global market.
