How oil was found in Saudi Arabia. When Oil Runs Out: Oil Kings Pray in the Sun Oil Exploration Concession
Saudi Arabia - one of the world's largest oil exporters - has taken up the development of alternative energy. It intends to build the world's largest solar farm with a capacity of 200 GW together with the Japanese telecommunications corporation Softbank. The corresponding memorandum of intent was signed in New York by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son.
By May of this year, the parties must prepare a feasibility study for the project, and by 2019 the first solar installations of the project with a capacity of 3 and 4.2 GW will be launched. According to the project, the entire cascade of solar farms will be fully operational in 2030. Its design capacity will be 200 GW.
The document also notes that the parties will develop the production of solar panels and storage facilities in Saudi Arabia, writes Finanz.ru. The project provides for the creation of 100,000 jobs. It is assumed that its implementation will increase the kingdom's GDP by $40 billion a year.
Stocks are running out
The Saudis took up solar energy not by chance: they have at least three weighty reasons for this, Rustam Tankaev, a leading expert of the Union of Oil and Gas Producers, believes. First and foremost is the desire to diversify the economy.
“The fact is that the oil fields of Saudi Arabia are quite developed, and there are no chances to discover new ones. And it is quite clear that in the foreseeable future, oil production in Saudi Arabia will begin to fall,” the expert explained to Reedus.
In recent years, the Saudis have used very serious methods to increase oil production, but the possibilities of these methods are limited, and now they are approaching a threshold where a decline in production will become inevitable.
Riyadh also has no illusions: the country has a state program for the transition to high-tech industries, and, apparently, it is indeed being consistently implemented.
But it is quite difficult to create such productions. The scientific research necessary for this requires the presence of scientific schools, long-term work and the training of a large number of specialists, as well as a specific atmosphere that would provide stable conditions for creativity.
“Unfortunately, there is none of this in Saudi Arabia. There are certain results of work over the past decade, but they are very small,” the analyst notes. And in this situation, such projects are very important and fit well into the new development paradigm.
Pursuit of Purity
The second incentive is environmental. Saudi Arabia, of course, can extract some electricity from oil, but this is a dirty production. According to Tankaev, the cleanest energy is gas. But there are actually no gas reserves in Saudi Arabia, blue fuel has to be purchased from other countries. In particular, a preliminary agreement was signed on LNG supplies by Novatek from Russia.
Under these conditions, the presence of such a powerful source of absolutely clean energy as solar farms is quite a blessing. Much less gas will have to be imported and spent money on it.
The third stimulus is provided by nature. Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries that can use solar and wind power relatively safely, as it has a very large number of sunny days and constant winds.
In Europe, for example in the UK, it is impossible to bet on solar energy, because a significant number of days a year are cloudy and solar panels simply cannot work. And the risks are very high that at the moment when the energy is needed the most, it simply will not be in the right quantities.
The expert believes that European countries, from the point of view of security, in principle cannot afford the share of solar and wind energy in the energy balance above 10%, although it is already higher now. There are no such risks for Saudi Arabia.
Sunset of the oil age
In general, the behavior of Saudi Arabia clearly shows that the oil era is coming to an end. This country traditionally treats analytical research and the work of experts with great respect. They have quite a lot of this kind of research produced and published, and they are very well prepared.
“If, for example, in the United States of what is published, the vast majority contains political opportunistic elements, in Saudi Arabia this is almost completely absent. That is, their figures are not distorted, conclusions are made quite cold-bloodedly and without regard to the international political situation,” says Tankaev.
The Saudis are well aware that a huge amount of money is being invested in the creation of clean energy, which will eventually lead to the elimination of oil energy. As an example, the expert cites the well-known, one might even say, already textbook statement of one of the country's oil ministers that the Stone Age did not end because stones ran out, and the oil age will end not because oil runs out.
"Everything is just like that. And most likely, the oil age will end even before the oil in Saudi Arabia,” agrees the analyst.
Let all the flowers bloom
Russia is also well aware that black gold has a relatively short reign, and is developing all types of energy in a comprehensive manner. Basically, of course, the emphasis is on gas. The country ranks first in the world in terms of the share of gas in energy consumption; in the Russian energy balance, blue fuel currently accounts for more than 51%.
“Russian energy is the cleanest in the world,” says Tankaev. “The United States at one time went with us at about the same level, but now they have somewhat reduced the share of gas in their energy consumption, they have a little more than 30%.”
There are quite a lot of active live projects in all areas of renewable energy, and often they are not at all public, but private. For example, now a very painful topic is waste disposal. And there are projects to use it for energy production. It turns out that it is cheaper to process garbage into fuel and produce heat and energy from it than to bury it or store it in stinking landfills.
Russia, with its gas deposits, does not particularly need such projects yet, but people are active, many expect to make money on this, and in the end they do. Somewhere such initiatives are implemented with the help of foreign companies. In particular, at one time Kamchatka received a large grant, where the Americans built tidal stations.
There are other examples as well. So, slowly, but still, the production of ethanol, that is, ethyl alcohol, is being restored. In the USSR, this industry was quite powerful, but with the collapse of the state, it was almost completely destroyed due to the fact that it was impossible to draw a line between drinking alcohol and fuel alcohol in the country. As a result, ethanol was subject to huge excises and was absolutely unprofitable as a fuel.
At the same time, ethyl alcohol is widely used all over the world as a component of gasoline, and it is also very beneficial for the environment. In Europe, any gasoline contains at least 15% alcohol. In the United States, motor ethyl alcohol is produced more than gasoline in Russia - about 40 million tons per year. In Russia - about 300 thousand tons per year. But this is already progress compared to the period when it was no longer produced at all.
Archaeologists have proven that implantation attempts were made as early as the 6th century BC. The first artificial teeth were made from wood, animal bones, ordinary or precious stones. Later, human teeth were also used, bought from the poor or removed from corpses. Modern false teeth with pins and enamel crowns, invented by Louis XV dentist Pierre Fauchard in the 18th century. Today, according to statistics, every second person after 35 years old turns to the dentist with the need for prosthetics. In Russia, the market for dental services is estimated at more than $4 billion. About 10% of this amount is accounted for by implantation.
The doll was shown for the first time at the New York Toy Fair. Once Ruth Handler noticed that her ten-year-old daughter liked paper "adult dolls" more than child dolls. And Mrs. Handler decided to create an "adult doll" for little girls. In the late 50s, Ruth acquired the rights to the Lily doll. She was a curvaceous blonde with a wasp waist and skimpy outfits. The design and wardrobe of the doll has been changed so that the doll becomes a toy for children. She was named after Ruth's daughter Barbara, Barbie. Today Mattel is the second largest toy manufacturer in the world. The company, which makes Barbies and other toys, had a market capitalization of more than $14.4 billion in 2014. In first place is Lego, the capitalization of this company is $ 18 billion.
On this date, the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Bell, first called his assistant, who was in the next room. In fact, Bell was building a special apparatus for the deaf and dumb, but while in the process of work, he got the idea to make a device with which it would be possible to transmit sounds at a distance. Over time, the design of phones and the quality of communication improved. In 1983, a fundamentally new type of communication appeared when Motorola released the first cell phone. And 22 years later, thanks to the Internet, IP-telephony became publicly available. Last year, the revenue of all Russian operators from fixed telephony services amounted to almost 171.5 billion rubles. Whereas the revenue in Russia of only one mobile operator from the "troika" for the same period is almost 282 billion rubles.
March 10, 1939 - the beginning of regular television broadcasts from the Shabolovsky television center in Moscow
The beginning was laid with the showing of a documentary about the opening of the 18th Congress of the CPSU(b). The signal went through the transmitters of the Shukhov Tower. In the future, transmissions were conducted four times a week for two hours. On the basis of the television center in 1951, the Central Television Studio of the USSR was created. In 1967, the main transmitting television center was moved to Ostankino. However, the Shabolovsky Center is still used by some TV channels today. At the time of the start of regular broadcasting, the number of televisions in Moscow's homes then barely exceeded a hundred. Today, about 30 million new TVs are sold annually in Russia, and more than 225 million TVs a year in the world.
Previously, monetary systems were based on other metals. In the 14th century, there was a silver standard in Central Europe, which gradually switched to a bimetallic system. Only five centuries later, with the advent of paper money, gold completely replaced other metals. Paper money and change coins were issued for the convenience of settlements, but on demand they were exchanged for gold. Gold was chosen because it had a high value and was not subject to temporal changes. The date of birth of the gold standard is considered to be 1819, when the law on the exchange of banknotes for gold was passed in Great Britain. And in 1971, when the US abandoned the free exchange of dollars for gold, the era of the gold standard finally ended.
According to legend, it was found by a nomad who decided to dig a well. However, instead of life-giving water, a black oily fountain appeared from under the ground. Due to the Second World War, the development of deposits was forced to be postponed. But already in the second half of the 20th century, thanks to oil, Saudi Arabia turned from the poorest state into one of the richest countries in the world. Today, almost 92% of the country's total income comes from oil exports. Saudi Arabia has 265.9 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. This is 15.8% of all world reserves. Russian subsoil contains about 90 billion barrels of black gold.
While some are rubbing their hands and waiting for Saudi Arabia to withdraw from the oil agreement with the Russian Federation (the Saudis accused Russia of insufficiently reducing the previously agreed daily production rates), the news that both countries plan to jointly produce oil and gas equipment has passed almost unnoticed. Well, a logical step for powers whose economy is heavily dependent on oil production.
Today, when we celebrate the beginning of the oil era in Saudi Arabia, it is worth talking about the fact that there are no resource curses, there are weak states.
Find and don't give up
The current Saudi state is already the third in a row, and its emergence is associated with the rivalry between the Saudis and the Rashidis, the most influential families in the region. The story is almost classical: the Saudis wanted to create a state that could resist the Ottoman Empire, and their rivals, on the contrary, often resorted to the help of the Ottomans in the fight against the Saudis.
For the third time, another Saudi was lucky. He began the struggle for the restoration of the state at the beginning of the 20th century, and finished after the end of the First World War. Empires collapsed, new alliances arose. It was easier for a novice state to get used to this whirlwind. Most importantly, the Ottoman Empire was gone, and the superpowers of that time, Britain and the United States, vied with each other to patronize the new Middle Eastern state. The British helped Abdulaziz ibn Abdurrahman Al Saud to rise to power and defeat his enemies. The Americans, as they say now, made a venture capital investment in Saudi Arabia. One of the most successful in history.
Since Britain helped fight off the Sauds, it is logical that she received the right to geological research and concession. However, in 1923, none of the London bankers wanted to invest in the desert. And this had its own objective reasons: Britain at that time did not even recognize the state in which its businessmen received the right to search for and develop deposits. The fact is that the war was still going on and ended only at the beginning of 1926. Shortly thereafter, the USSR also recognized the state of Saudi Arabia.
In 1933 the concession was obtained by Standard Oil. Given the circumstances of a particular year, there is no need to explain once again how difficult it was for the company to decide on an investment. And how difficult it was for geologists for almost three years (April 1935 - the start of drilling the first well) to convince their management not to curtail the project.
Oil had already been found in the Middle East by that time - in Bahrain. And he played a cruel joke with geologists. Hoping that the depth of occurrence should be approximately the same (600-650 meters), geologists over and over again received zilch instead of oil: dry wells, water, water with oil impurities - and this is already at a depth twice as great as in Bahrain. Oil has been found. After the seventh well passed the mark of 1440 meters. Fantastic luck: the leader of the party was not in place, he was recalled to the USA to close the project. A little more than a year later, the first tanker picked up the first oil in the port, delivered there through a hastily built oil pipeline.
The war helped
If oil had been found there earlier, then World War II could have gone according to a different scenario. It, as we remember, largely revolved around oil. In particular, Rommel's forces in North Africa were to take control of the fields controlled by British companies. If he succeeded, the next target would be the Middle East. But it did not work out: Saudi Arabia was not yet a significant player at that time.
On the other hand, in many ways the war made the country the way we see it. War is a constant outstripping demand for fuel, petrochemicals. In other conditions, production in Saudi Arabia, even with its fabulously low cost, could develop for a long time and gradually. The war, and with it the jump in motorization, gave a giant boost to production: from 0.5 million tons in 1938. up to 7.8 million tons in 1946. And up to 26 million after just 4 years. At its peak, in 1973, 375 million tons were pumped into the desert.
Today, only the Saudis themselves know how much they could produce - it limits the production of its member states to maintain prices. But in general, if we talk about a country that lives on an oil needle, an energy superpower, then this is Saudi Arabia: 40% of GDP is formed by oil, 90-95% of export revenues to the budget from it.
Oil investments
It is known that the Saudis have long been and, with reservations, are still a strategic partner of the United States in the region. This was initiated by the Standard Oil concession, then the war, then the demand for Middle Eastern oil grew at such a pace that the United States could not allow the SA to leave its zone of influence, they kept it under the wing.
The question arises: how then did it escape the action of the notorious “resource curse”? Why didn’t the subjects of the Saudis split into various kinds of civil fronts (as in, say) and don’t bludgeon each other? And because the Saudis can and should be reproached for violating human rights, but the Saudis began to build their own state even before the British colonies in the New World declared independence, so the state interest is well understood there.
We started with a gradual buyout of a company that produced oil in Arabia. After the buyout and renaming, it is known as Aramco. Then they looked for growth points: since the cost of production is low, it makes sense to invest in industries where oil is the main raw material (cheap raw materials => competitive prices for end products). We are talking about investments in oil refining and petrochemistry. It is always more profitable to carry with your own tankers, which means that you need your own merchant fleet.
And these are only targeted public investments. How many of them are stuffed around the world - perhaps no one knows. There is only the term - "camel's money", that is, the money of oil sheikhs.
Hardly anyone thinks that they were expected in the refining and petrochemical markets. But they reconciled.
Saudi Arabia and the oil that has been pumped there for almost 80 years is a good example of raw material modernization; investments in own industry; building chains of high redistribution.
After all, the term “energy superpower” has offensive connotations only if it is understood as the sale of crude oil alone.
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As for the resource curse, we are generally inclined to consider it a journalistic cliché. Much more often, useless managers are to blame.
Today we complete the publication of a fragment from the book Daniel Yergin Mining. A World History of the Struggle for Oil, Money and Power. This is the story of how Harry St. John Bridger Philby (father of the famous) helped the king of Saudi Arabia find an oil source of income. Reading Daniel Yergin:
During the discovery of the Bahraini field in May 1932, Sokal approached Philby in order, in the words of the director of Sokal, "to get in touch with His Majesty Ibn Saud." Philby knew that competition between different oil companies would provide better deals for his friend the king, so he contacted the Iraqi Oil Company through its main founder, the Anglo Persian Company, pointing out to them Sokal's interest in El Haza. . “I am in no way supposed to serve the interests of the mentioned concern,” he wrote to the senior geologist of the Anglo Persian Company, “but in general I am disposed to help everyone who is practically interested in these issues and can help the government.” In the end, he agreed to be an adviser to Sokal, but in secret. At the same time, he maintained contacts with the Iraqi Oil Company, and so successfully that its representative Longridge considered him a confidant. In fact, both then and in the future, Philby was loyal above all to the king.
Philby was enjoying his new alliance with the Sokal. Helping an American company to succeed in Arabia is again "pulling the lion's tail" and harming British interests in the region. The agreement with Sokal also gave him a large personal income. While doing many projects for his trading company, he constantly faced the same problem common to the whole kingdom - he was not paid. And the money was badly needed, for example, in order to pay for the studies of his son Kim at the University of Cambridge. For the services, Sokal agreed to pay Jack Philby $1,000 a month for six months, plus bonuses both for the signing of the concession contract and for the discovery of oil. Thus, Kim Philby was eventually able to continue his studies at Cambridge, where he took the first step in the "career" of the Soviet spy.
During the negotiations, the Saudi side left no doubt that its main goal was to receive a large advance payment. “It is useless to keep you in the hope that you could secure the concession without significant compensation,” Philby wrote in the Sokal. - The main thing is that the government of Ibn Saud is a large debtor and cannot fulfill its obligations to its creditors. His only hope of paying off is now based on the opportunity to pledge potential resources.
The positions of the two Western groups differed sharply. While Sokal was interested in obtaining the concession, the Iraqi Oil Company, backed by the Anglo Persian Company, thought differently. Longridge confidentially told Philby that "they don't need the oil anymore because they've found so much of it already that they don't know what to do with it. At the same time, they have a vital interest in keeping competitors out.” So, the Iraqi Oil Company's efforts were more "preventive" than exploration. In addition, the Anglo Persian Company continued to be skeptical about the oil potential of El Haza and was not going to make any major investments in Saudi Arabia. Longridge's task, he explained to the British ambassador, was "not to buy a pig in a poke by paying a lot of money for the right to extract oil with big problems."
As the pace of the talks became increasingly daunting, the enigmatic Philby shone in a variety of roles—he worked as a paid spokesman for Sokal, was an adviser to the Saudis, briefed the Iraqi Oil Company, served as Longridge's confidant, and spoke to various oilmen from time to time. , as requested by the king during their last automobile voyage to Mecca. Not only oil occupied Philby: he actively sought a monopoly on the import of cars for the Saudi government and the company for the transport of pilgrims, he was organizing a radio network in the country.
Sokal offered only a fifth of what the Saudis asked for. In early April 1933, one of the leaders of Sokal informed Philby about the "unfortunate impasse in which the negotiations had reached" ... The country's oil resources are practically unknown, and it would be the height of recklessness for the company to spend large sums before examining the geology of the region. The company didn't have to worry too much about the Iraqi Oil Company and the Anglo Persian Company—they were only willing to give a fraction of what Sokal had to offer. Philby advised Longridge, "You can pack, the Americans are offering a lot more than you." So Longridge did, suddenly leaving and leaving the “battlefield”. Philby urged the Americans and Suleiman to achieve "detente", which would mean the offer of larger sums from Sokal.
By May 1933, the final draft of the concession agreement between Sokal and Saudi Arabia was ready to be presented to the king. After formal discussions at a secret council, Ibn Saud said to Abdullah Suleiman: “With God, sign.” The agreement provided for an immediate payment of £35,000 in gold ($175,000) – £30,000 as a loan and £5,000 in advance against profits paid for the first year. Eighteen months later, a second loan of 20 thousand pounds (100 thousand dollars) was supposed to be issued. The entire total loan had to be repaid only from deductions due to the government. In addition, the company provided another loan of 100 thousand pounds sterling in gold (500 thousand dollars) upon the discovery of oil. The concession was in effect for sixty years and covered an area of 360,000 square miles. On May 29, 1933, the treaty was signed. Ibn Saud received very significant money. The king and his finance minister also insisted on conditions that encouraged Sokal to work as quickly as possible.
There was only one problem - where to get so much gold? With America just off the gold standard, Sokal's attempts to obtain gold directly from the US were rebuffed by Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Dean Acheson. But in the end, the London Office of the Surety Trust, acting for Sokal, received 35,000 gold sovereigns from the royal mint. They were sent in seven boxes by ship to Saudi Arabia. They even made sure that the English monarch was depicted on the coins, and not Queen Victoria, because they feared that in the society of male domination of Saudi Arabia, coins with her image could depreciate.
The acquisition of the concession by an American company was bound to change the picture of political interests in the region. When Philby informed the British ambassador, Sir Andrew Ryan, of the Sokal concession, he looked "as if thunderstruck, and his face darkened with irritation and disappointment." Philby enjoyed it immensely. Of course, the loss of Great Britain meant the gain of the United States, although Washington did not immediately realize this. Despite repeated protests by the Sokal, the Roosevelt administration refused to open a diplomatic mission, wearily repeating that it was not necessary. It was not until 1939 that the US ambassador to Egypt was also accredited to Saudi Arabia. It wasn't until 1942 that the United States opened a permanent one-man legation in Saudi Arabia.
The Anglo-Persian Company and the Iraqi Oil Company realized very soon that they had made a mistake because of their miserliness. The founders of the Iraqi Oil Company, blaming each other, decided not to make such mistakes again. In 1936, the group received a concession in the Hijaz, the western part of Saudi Arabia, stretching from Transjordan all the way to Yemen. The terms implied a much higher fee than the one that was listed in the contract with Sokal three years ago. This agreement had only one drawback: the Iraqi Oil Company did not manage to find oil at all.
/…/
... Survey work in the neighborhood of Saudi Arabia caused only disappointment, and the Sokal board of directors became increasingly worried. In November 1937, Sokal's foreign oil manager telegraphed an internal order to Arabia banning any project without first submitting a detailed plan. And then, in March 1938, a few weeks after the discovery in Kuwait, came the stunning news: at a depth of 4727 feet in the "Well No. 7" of the Dammam zone, a large amount of oil was discovered. In the end, the discovery was made - almost three years after the start of drilling in the Dammam No. 1 well. Ibn Saud and Saudi Arabia were on their way to riches. The unity of the kingdom no longer depended on fluctuations in the number of believers who made the pilgrimage to Mecca.
The discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia sparked a frantic effort to secure concessions here, not only from the Iraqi Oil Company, but also from more sinister countries such as Germany, Japan, and Italy. Observers were under the impression that the Axis was making a concerted effort to secure drilling rights in Saudi Arabia. The Japanese opened a diplomatic mission there and offered huge, in comparison with existing conditions, sums for a concession in the country and in the possessions of the king in the neutral zone. These were, in the words of one Saudi official, "completely astronomical proportions." The Japanese presented Ibn Saud with a classic samurai combat attire, which, however, turned out to be not enough for the large body of the monarch. To gain a foothold in the country, the Germans accredited their Baghdad ambassador to Saudi Arabia and opened a permanent mission. They also pushed for an "arms" deal with the Saudis. In the meantime, Italy continued its campaign of pressure on Saudi Arabia in order to obtain a concession. However, Helmets, in accordance with a secret annex to the 1933 treaty, had priority rights to Saudi territory, which she successfully exercised on May 31, 1939, expanding the total area of \u200b\u200bher exclusive concession to 440,000 square miles, which was equal to approximately one sixth of continental America. . Of course, you had to pay for this. As the financial needs of the Saudis grew, Sokal repeatedly lent millions of dollars to the kingdom.
But, as it soon became clear, taking into account the size of the stakes in the game, all this was not done in vain. The discovery at Well No. 7 in March 1938 marked the beginning of a new era. The necessary industrial, administrative and residential construction accelerated in Dhahran, which eventually became a suburb for American specialists, an oasis in the middle of the desert. Immediately after the discovery at Well No. 7, construction began on a pipeline connecting the field and Ras Tannura, the onshore site chosen for the marine terminal. In April 1939, a huge procession of four hundred cars, in which the king and a large retinue were, crossed the desert and arrived in Dhahran. There they were housed in 350 tents. The reason was the arrival of the first cargo in Ras Tannura tanker "D. J. Scofield“. With solemnity appropriate to the occasion, King Ibn Saud himself turned the valve, letting in oil from Saudi Arabia.
The Sokal was in a hurry to extend its search to most of the desert. An exploration well, ten thousand feet deep, indicated the possible presence of very large oil reserves in this place. In 1940, production reached 20,000 barrels per day. The prospects seemed even brighter.
But then World War II intervened. In October 1940, the Italians bombed Dhahran, although they were apparently targeting Bahrain. Later, in January 1941, construction began on a small oil refinery at Ras Tannur, which, however, was closed the following June. In neighboring Kuwait, work was also suspended due to the war. In accordance with the orders of the Allied governments, all wells in Kuwait were filled with cement and thereby disabled - there were fears that they would fall into the hands of the Germans.
In Saudi Arabia, oil operations were also largely halted, with most US employees going home. The remaining team maintained production at the level of 12,15 thousand barrels per day, while the oil was sent for processing to Bahrain. But further development was delayed. However, as the world community realized the oil potential of Saudi Arabia, the country's oil resources were bound to become the object of more ingenious and intense political games than the Standard of California, King Ibn Saud, and even Philby, who first planted in the head of the king thought of an underground treasure.
During the thirties, Jack Philby prospered in Saudi Arabia, continuing the geographical exploration of the country. After the outbreak of World War II, he tried to mediate between Ibn Saud and the president of the World Zionist Organization, Chaim Weizmann, in the division of Palestine, but this did not lead to anything. His anti-British sentiment did not subside. He loudly criticized the allies and was arrested during a trip to India. He was sent back to England, where he had to spend six months in prison. He spent the rest of the war writing pamphlets, poetry, and "not for publication" books, entangled in second-rate politics. Returning to Saudi Arabia after the war, Philby again became an adviser to the king, conducting new research, writing new books and profitably running his trading business in the conditions of the post-war oil boom. Marrying a young woman introduced to him by the king, he became a father again at the age of sixty-five. However, after the death of Ibn Saud, Philby began to criticize the extravagance of his son, the new king Saud. Philby was expelled from the country, but after a few years they were allowed to return. In 1960, during a trip to Beirut to visit his son Kim, he fell ill and ended up in the hospital. The man whose life had been so eventful and "panoramic", daring and theatrical, now lay unconscious. He woke up only for a moment, whispered to his son: “I am so tired,” and died. At a Muslim cemetery in Lebanon, Kim ordered a simple inscription on the tombstone: "The greatest of the Arab explorers."
Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud, the ruler of the kingdom of Hijaz, was taking a car ride. Not alone. Both his interlocutor and the topic of conversation were exceptionally curious. Sitting next to the king was Jack Philby, a British orientalist and father of Kim Fibley, who would later become one of the most famous double agents of the 20th century. And the king and the spy's father were talking about oil. Or rather, about the deplorable state of the treasury of the kingdom of Hijaz (two years later it will be renamed Saudi Arabia).
In response to the sad reflections of Ibn Saud, Philby replied that both the king himself and his government reminded him of beggars who sleep on a treasure buried in the ground. He was convinced that the desert hides huge reserves of oil. It remained only to convince the king to attract foreigners to search for her.
On the dangers of bad habits
Of course, Saudi Arabia did not immediately become one of the main players in the international arena. The concession agreement was signed only in 1933; for several more years, geological surveys brought only disappointment. And when oil was found and production was established, the Second World War began.
In this situation, US President Franklin Roosevelt almost made a strategic mistake - he did not want to help Ibn Saud. Luckily, Roosevelt's inner circle included his administration's interior secretary, Harold Ickes. He understood the value of relations with the Saudi dynasty much better than the president and was able to convince the president, insisting that if the Americans did not help Ibn Saud, the oil concessions of American companies would pass to the British.
Relations between the two countries became even closer when Roosevelt and Ibn Saud met in person. They were similar - about the same age, with similar interests and troubles (both were disabled).
Against this background, the visit of Winston Churchill to Saudi Arabia, which followed almost immediately, turned out to be a failure, and all because of the bad habits of the British Prime Minister. Churchill was told that it was forbidden to smoke or drink alcohol in the presence of the king. Churchill, according to his own recollections, replied: "If his religion sets such conditions, then my religion prescribes as an absolutely sacred ritual smoking cigars and drinking before, after, and if necessary, during all meals."
The greed of the oilmen ruined
Saudi Arabia did not show geopolitical claims until the 1960s. And, perhaps, this would have continued for a long time if it were not for the greed of American oil exporting companies. In 1960, they sharply lowered the purchase price of oil, which provoked a sharp reaction from the producing countries. In the same year, the oil-producing countries created OPEC, an organization that protects their interests, and set a course for gradual nationalization.
For two decades, Saudi Arabia has appreciated the full power of the "oil weapon" that it held in its hands. First of all, thanks to the two energy crises provoked by it - in 1973 and 1979.
The first was a response to Western support for Israel in the Arab-Israeli war. Saudi Arabia has imposed an oil embargo on the United States and some other Western countries. By then, the world was already two-thirds dependent on oil.
It is clear that for Western countries it was an economic shock. But, no less important, the shock was psychological. It turned out that someone can dictate their terms to the superpowers. The shortage of fuel in the United States has completely plunged people into prostration.
Switched from camels to pickups
Saudi Arabia has jumped from the Middle Ages to the present in just a couple of decades. “Keeping camels is extremely unprofitable, Datsun will cost much less,” joked Nissan bosses who flooded Saudi Arabia with their pickups in those years.
Not surprisingly, every American administration that came to power after the 1970s preferred to be friends with the Saudi regime. It was a mutually beneficial friendship. It, in fact, made it possible to solve even such problems as the collapse of the Soviet Union. After all, the fall in oil prices in the 1980s was the result of a sharp increase in oil production by Saudi Arabia. According to one of the widespread versions, Ronald Reagan convinced the Saudi kings to increase oil production.
Even the September 9, 2001 terrorist attacks did not spoil relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia, although most of the terrorists were from this country, Georgy Mirsky, chief researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, notes.
After the 2001 attacks, "nearly eighty percent of the mosques in Saudi Arabia expressed their support for bin Laden," Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Saudi aide to the interior minister, told US diplomats. These words are contained in one of the State Department documents declassified by WikiLeaks. “It was only then that the leadership of Saudi Arabia realized how dire the problem they were facing,” the prince argued.
This helped bring the Saudi monarchy closer to the administrations of both George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The Saudi leadership welcomed American airstrikes on terrorist bases in Yemen and insisted on a war with Iran. Documents published by WikiLeaks mention several times that King Abdullah ibn Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia called on the US administration to "cut off the snake's head" in reference to Iran.
Clan fight
The recent death of King Abdullah al-Saud has led many to speculate that a violent power struggle has begun in the country. However, the transfer of power to his younger brother Salman al-Saud went very smoothly. Moreover, it is determined who will become king after the death of 79-year-old Salman - this is Muqrin ibn Abdel-Aziz al-Saud. He is also not young - 71 years old.
Further power should pass to the generation of the grandchildren of Ibn Saud. And here any scenario is already possible. The peaceful transfer of power in Saudi Arabia is rather an anomaly of recent decades. Even in the 20th century, during the reign of one Saudi dynasty, power did not always pass from prince to prince voluntarily.
There is a serious confrontation between the various ruling clans in the Saudi elite, explains Evgeny Satanovsky, president of the Middle East Institute. - For example, between the sons of King Faisal, who was killed in 1975, and the sons of the kings who ruled after him.
Clans deprived of power will bet on different successors, and this promises a fierce struggle for the throne, which may even cost the country its territorial integrity. Because there are a huge number of people who want to weaken the Saudi dynasty. In addition to al-Qaeda fighters active in Yemen, this is also a relatively new headache for the Islamic State.
Share of Saudi Arabia in world oil production
- 1960 - 8,5 %
- 1970 - 8,6 %
- 1980 - 16,8 %
- 1990 - 10,1 %
- 2000 - 12,3 %
- 2010 - 14,2 %
