Saudi Arabia's Rise to a Top Oil Producer

Saudi Arabia's Rise to a Top Oil Producer

This timeline is used to describe how Saudi Arabia was able to quickly become a top oil-producing nation in a short span of time

What if?

1949-51

1933

1980's

1938

After the agreement with SoCal, Saudi Arabia took roughly 8 years to discover its first oil field. Geologist Max Steineke, leader of the oil movement, discovered the first oil. This oil was discovered in what is known as the "Prosperity Well", also known as Damman 7. Dammam 7 was Saudi Arabia's first commercial crude oil well. At first, they couldn't hit any oil, and it seemed like a bust, yet Steineke persisted and wanted them to drill deeper. After many losses, such as cave-ins in the well, on March 3 they finally struck oil. This was a wonderful result for the King as it resulted in OIl revenues being able to become the primary income source and not pillages to Mecca.

In 1949, a real boost in oil production became visible, producing roughly 500,000 barrels per day. Saudi Arabia was booming in production and was only the start of its increase. As a result of this increase, the TAPline was created. The Trans-Arabian Pipeline was a pipeline that spanned roughly 1,212km across Saudi Arabia. The TAPline was created to more easily transport oil not only throughout the country but also into Europe, as Europe is not a big oil producer; rather, it imports the majority of its oil. It also cut costs and time significantly being a major part in their success in transporting oil, saving a good portion of money. The Safaniyah field is another accomplishment during these two years. This is an offshore oil field, the largest in the world. Although discovered in 1951, it wasn't put into production until 1957. Once it was in production, it was producing 50,000 barrels of crude oil a day, proving it to be a valuable part of Saudi Arabia's production.

Offshore OIl Field

In 1980, roughly 30 years after the TAPline was created, Saudi Arabia saw a huge gross in oil production and stake in Aramco. From only producing 500,000 barrels a day in 1950, they now produce 10 million barrels per day. Saudi Arabia was thriving during this time, but some problems occurred during the 80s. At the beginning of the decade, ARAMCO was not fully owned by Saudi Arabia, and as a result, the land they were able to use was reduced to 220,00km. Another piece during the 1980's was that Saudi Arabia stopped being a swing producer for OPEC. Saudi Arabia had the power to raise and lower prices for the world's benefit. This was a great help to the world's economy by keeping oil prices fluctuating, but not good for them. They had much greater capacity and produced much more oil. So by the late 1980's, they were able to branch out from their role in OPEC and control their share of the market, leading them to become a top producer in the world.

This question is tied to many parts but anchored in the starting point: if Saudi Arabia had never made the deal with SoCal, would it have even been able to discover oil? This is a major ripple-effect question because many things have changed in Saudi Arabia. For instance, Saudi Arabia does not become a wealthy country, having to rely on pilgrimages as one of its top sources of GNI; it does not earn as much income as it would if it were selling oil. Another major effect, and most prominent, is that oil costs would soar. Without a country like Saudi Arabia producing cheap, easily transported oil, prices would skyrocket. Countries in Europe would be affected by this much more than places like the U.S., as they get the majority of their oil from the Persian Gulf. For example, Saudi Arabia was responsible for 30% of Europe's oil. That is a significant gap to fill, making oil harder to acquire in that region.

In 1933, Saudi Arabia and SoCal were in talks about a deal to fulfill an agreement and become partners. Prior to this, Saudi Arabia had been wanting to discover their own oil. After the discovery of oil in the Persian Gulf in 1908, Saudi Arabia felt it might have some of their own. So in 1933, they agreed to the terms with SoCal to kickstart their oil adventure. After the deal was completed, SoCal obtained roughly 930,000km of research field in Saudi Arabia to work with. This led to the transformation of the California Arabian Standard Oil Company.

SoCal

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SoCal

Standard Oil Company of California

The Standard Oil Company of California was publicly traded and one of the "Standard Oil" successor companies. Now known as Chevron, it was later combined with other companies to form the California Arabian Oil Company to manage their agreement.

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Offshore Oil Field

In refrence to the Safaniyah Field

An offshore oil field is a marine area from which oil is drilled from the seabed. These fields used specialized platforms, usually floating, to serve as oil production facilities.

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Use timelines to tell stories in an organized, hierarchical, structured, and concise way. These are the pillars for carrying out a successful presentation.