Setting the price of oil, one of the most sought-after and traded commodities in the global market, has been a major issue in the field of economics. In this book, Abdulaziz M. Aldukheil offers his mathematical base for setting the price of Middle Eastern crude oil and its application in oil exporting nations. Focusing on Saudi Arabia, An Optimum Base for Pricing Middle Eastern Crude Oil examines the deficiencies of present price-setting methods where production (extraction), trade, return on foreign investment and the subsequent investment of surplus revenues present complex questions for the Saudi Arabian economy. The author suggests that if the nation has to produce more oil than what it can invest in at home, it has to be offered foreign investment with a return equal to the annual real rate of growth crude oil price.

Abdulaziz M. Aldukheil is Chairman and Founder of the Aldukheil Financial Group. He was previously Deputy Minister of Finance in Saudi Arabia. He has been a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University, Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies, University of Oxford, and a Visiting Scholar at the American University of Beirut Business School.

List of Abbreviations viii 1. The Theory of Exhaustible Resources 2. Petroleum Economics: A Theory of Production 3. The Evolution of Middle East Oil Prices and Government Share 4. Towards a Rational Pricing Policy for Middle Eastern Crude Oil 5. The Middle Eastern Surplus Funds 6. Summary and Conclusions Appendix Bibliography Index