Lower Oil Prices Force Saudis to Widen Their Circle of Friendsbr “Low oil prices have made the Saudi way of life unsustainable, so they have to find alternatives,” said Bruce Riedel, a former Middle East analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency and the author of “Kings and Presidents: Saudi Arabia and the United States Since F. D.R.” “Any partner they can findbr that can help them do that, they are going to embrace enthusiastically.”br The most surprising partner is Russia, which remains on the opposite side of the Syrian civil warbr and is also trying to build better relations with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s bitter regional rival.br And when China needed new energy supplies for its expanding economy in the early years of the newbr century, Saudi Arabia was there with an ambitious oil exploration program to meet the new demand.br “The Saudis are compensating for their lost power in OPECbr and they are showing pure geopolitical pragmatism in their new energy and foreign policy,” said Bill Richardson, a former energy secretary and ambassador to the United Nations.br The changing nature of the energy industry — the oil production boom in American shale fields, the persistence of lower crude prices,br and the rise of natural gas — has transformed the geopolitical equation.br A flood of oil from American shale fields has enabled the United States to slash imports of OPEC oilbr and begin exporting to markets that were once dominated by Saudi crude.