“The late Sheikh Ames Zaki Yamani was a legend in the global oil market. He was the face of Saudi Arabia and the most popular Saudi as the Americans used to describe him.

Sheik Yamani was a towering figure in OPEC when he served as the oil minister of Saudi Arabia. He always dominated the negotiations at OPEC and had his views prevail.

While Saudi oil minster, he was for a time one of the most powerful men on earth. For over two decades, as both Saudi oil minister and the leading force behind OPEC, Yamani was the star player of the world’s biggest business, the supreme negotiator in the most volatile market and the ultimate diplomat in the shifting sands of Saudi politics.

The late Saudi King Faisal appointed him as an oil minster when he was 32 years old. Over the next two decades he wrestled control of Aramco away from the Americans and turned OPEC into a major force in the global oil market.

His greatest legacy by which he will always be remembered is that he orchestrated under the astute leadership of King Faisal the Arab oil weapon during the 1973 October war between Egypt and Syria with Israel. He will also be remembered as having been the nemesis of the Shah of Iran.

Sheikh Yamani continued to serve as the oil minster of Saudi Arabia until October 1986 when a terse one-sentence edict issued on behalf of the late Saudi King Fahad brought his political career to an end over declining oil prices.”