If Ali al-Naimi were to review his time as Saudi oil minister, he might feel events had turned full circle. Two years after the long-serving technocrat’s 1995 promotion to become only the kingdom’s fourth oil minister in 40 years, Naimi pushed through an ill-fated Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries deal in Indonesia to lift supply just as Asia went into economic tailspin. Designed to punish Venezuela for flouting its output quota, the decision has gone down in OPEC lore as the most poorly-judged in cartel history. Oil prices halved to $10 a barrel. Nearly two decades later, Naimi, 80, is facing another supply crisis, driving oil prices to the lowest in six years — at below $40 per barrel, more than $100 below the 2008 pre-financial crisis peak. And as in Jakarta in 1997, today’s crash has been orchestrated by Naimi himself with the same aim in mind: to defend Saudi market share against rivals — primarily this time against booming U.S. shale oil supply. Throughout his career, Naimi has worked to avoid a repeat of the error of his legendary predecessor, Sheikh Zaki Yamani, who was dismissed in 1986 as he unsuccessfully tried to fight an oil price collapse by unilaterally reducing Saudi output.