Yamani, Ahmad Zaki al- (1930– )

Saudi Arabian politician, oil minister 1962–86. An exemplar of a new generation of young, Western-trained technocrats who came to serve the ruling al-Saud family, al-Yamani rose to prominence as the government's legal adviser from 1958, and in 1962 became minister of oil and natural resources. He remained in this post until October 1986 and during these years was the most influential figure within the Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries (OPEC), the cartel of oil-producing states formed in 1960. He played a key role in orchestrating, through restrictions on output, the surge in world oil prices during the 1970s, which saw Saudi annual oil revenues rise from $2.7 billion in 1972 to $102 billion in 1981. During the early 1980s al-Yamani changed strategy and advocated increased Saudi, and OPEC, oil production, in an effort to maintain the cartel's share of world output. The consequence was a fall in world oil prices, which raised al-Yamani's popularity in the West, but led to his dismissal in 1986.

Educated at Cairo, New York, and at Harvard University, he was a lawyer before entering politics.