RIYADH: In mid-70s, shortly before physical elimination from the scene, the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia had forewarned Henry Kissinger, the wheeler-dealer of the day, that if and when pushed to the wall, “we would put our (oil) wells to fire and return to the tents.”

However, King Faisal’s son, Price Saud Al-Faisal, the current foreign minister, is pragmatic to the core and concedes that using oil as weapon is no more possible.

When Arab oil producers used crude supplies as a weapon during the 1973 Yom Kippur war between Israel and Arab armies, those were distinctly different times.

And hence during times of crisis, voices calling for using oil as a weapon could definitely be heard in certain quarters. However, the fact remains that the use of oil as a weapons has been dead. Long, long ago.

Since the 1973 oil embargo, the overall equation has been completely transformed and even if there existed a desire and a will — itself a big question mark — the Opec oil producers are no more controlling the markets as they did in the 70s. They have other limitations too.

But whenever there is a crisis, the question starts looming. There is no dearth of people romanticising the very idea. While Israel was continuing with its naked aggression against Lebanon during the summer of 2006, similar reverberations were heard.

And while Israel continues to pound Gaza, killing and injuring in the thousands and the West continues to remain insensitive, there have been calls within the region to use crude as a weapon.It all started when an Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander, Brig Gen Mirfaysal Bagherzadeh, urged oil-rich Muslim countries to use crude as a weapon to pressure Israel into ending its aggression in Gaza.

And only a few days earlier, some members of Bahrain’s lower house of parliament said Arabs should use oil and the region’s huge investment funds to pressure the West over Israel’s offensive.

And this led to a stream of articles and papers in important publications throughout the world, as if a threat was looming large on the world. Wasn’t it sensationalising the issue?

When the Bahraini parliamentarians gave a call for an embargo, it did not carry much weight.

Bahrain is neither an Opec member nor a significant oil producer. The move has got no official Bahraini backing either.

On the other hand, Iran is definitely a major crude producer. Yet the revolutionary Guard Commander giving the call is not among the top oil officials of Iran.

His suggestion drew no comment from senior Iranian oil officials. And the fact remains that the Ahmedinejad government in Tehran has to tread carefully.

It depends on oil revenue for as much as 90 per cent of its income and is already suffering badly from market woes.

With oil prices falling rapidly, it is virtually impossible for Tehran. Weak economics definitely doesn’t permit Iran to take the pugnacious and the belligerent route.

And things go much beyond that. It is not only an issue of ‘will they’? It is also an issue of ‘can they’? At most Opec today controls 40 per cent of the global market.

The rest is under the thumb of non-Opec producers and most of them, for their own reasons, would definitely not join in. Even if Opec embarks on such a callous path.

And the other factor is the role of oil in the global economy. There was a time when oil contributing eight per cent to the global GDP. Today it constitutes almost one-fourth of the value.

Furthermore, since the 1973 oil embargo, the oil intensity, defined as the number of barrels of oil required to generate $1,000 of GDP, has gone down considerably.

In the US, the world’s largest crude consumer, from 1950 to around 1977, oil intensity wavered around 1.5 and after 1977 it began to drop, going down to about 1/3 of what it was in late 1970s and early 1980s.

And with the gas guzzlers era finally coming to an end, as some say now, this could fall even further.

Regional Arab leaders today are also embracing pragmatic politics, increasingly distancing from the angry rhetoric of the past. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly emphasised that oil is not a weapon. It is an economic tool and would be handled the same way. To continue meeting growing aspirations, Riyadh needs oil revenues. It cannot live without it, everyone knows. Other Arab Opec members are also in no different shape.

All this brings us to the basic reality — Opec cannot bring the world to its knees. It neither has the will nor the capacity to do so, one has to concede. Let’s be pragmatic. Rather than sensationalising the issue, it is finally time to get down to the basics and let the issue rest in peace.