Oil and Saudi-Iranian Tensions (2001-2019)

Iran and Saudi Arabia are going through one of their worst periods of their relations. They have long been serious competitors for each other in the Middle East, and the rivalry seems to have intensified in the last ten years and has had farreaching consequences for both countries. These two regional powers both are major oil exporting countries and naturally in any main issues, oil could be account as an important tool to pursue goals in foreign policy. Iran and Saudi Arabia have a long history of differences about oil policies but one of the most severe differences appeared in 2011-2019, along with escalating tensions between the two countries in the region, which heavily shaped oil market trends in this period. So the main question of the article centered about how has the escalating tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia in 2010-2019 affected the oil sector of the two countries? The answer given to this question as a hypothesis is that the escalating tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia has led the officials of the two countries to resort to aggressive use of oil against the rival which have caused serious damages to the oil sector of both countries.

Keywords:

Iran , Saudi Arabia , Oil Sector , regional rivalry , Middle East