Saudi Arabia needs oil prices to stay at about $60/barrel to balance their national budget. Early last March in the wake of the COVID 19 crisis, Saudi Arabia tried to convince the rest of the world's oil producers of the need to reduce oil output so that oil prices would remain steady, Russia refused this request and wanted to keep output the same. What happened next shocked everyone. The Saudi prince reversed course and flooded the oil markets driving oil prices to levels not seen since the 1970s. It's been a battle of egos for over a month and has upended the global stock markets and is costing millions of energy related jobs. briefly comment (a paragraph is fine) on your observations. Subscribe