Saturday, November 24, 2007

Saudi Aramco-Who Are They?

How much does a barrel of oil cost today? 5 points to first person to post the answer.



Arriving at the Exhibit Hall

The Saudis are famous for their oil. But what are the details of this? How did we come to be allied with this particular country? What is it like to be an American living in Saudi Arabia? These are all questions I've been curious about, and today I came closer to getting some answers.

SAUDI ARAMCO COMPOUND

A compound is a location that is associated with residential quarters for a business, industry or military base. It is seperate and apart from the community in which it is located. This is the case for Dhahran, the largest of Saudi Aramco's compounds. In this compound, there are armed security guards at all entrances and you must have authorization to visit before you can enter. Since many Americans work in Saudi Arabi, they are required to live in the compound.

Aramco wives bringing their children to the recreation center to swim.

The compound is a mix of Aramco offices and employee housing. As you drive through the compound, you could swear you are driving through any neighborhood in Southern California. Kind of like Wisteria Lane or the Stepford community. This neighborhood has children, schools, parks, golf courses, public transportation, boys and girls scouts, and much, much more. We are staying at Steineke Hall, where each room has a computer, internet access, free dry cleaning, and daily maid service. We met several ladies so far who tout the benefits of being Aramco wives such as:

  • cheap housing costs (about $400 a month to rent a house)
  • free utilities and maintenance

  • free schooling on the compound

  • free or reduced priced boarding school when children get to 10th grade

  • banks, post offices, commisary (grocery store/supply store)

  • free health benefits

  • do not have to pay taxes in America

  • good salaries

  • safe neighborhoods to raise children

  • ability to travel often to Europe, Asia, and Africa

So how can Aramco afford to pay for all of this? By selling OIL to the world. It is the top oil company in all of Arabia and possibly in the world. Today we toured an exhibit that gave us background information on the company, and later we visited the control center, where decisions are made about production in refineries all over the world. It was awesome! There was one entire floor in a building that housed the Supercomputers which are able to calculate trillions of problems in a second. Soon I will put up links to both the Exhibit and the Control Center.

The most delicious part of our day was when we had lunch with the Vice President of Saudi Aramco Affairs, and let me tell you, it was amazing. Mustafa Al-Jalali was a man with a commanding presence, a great conversationalist, and gracious host. He answered every single question we asked him, and did not mind tackling controversial issues head on.

Are there women in top levels of management? "Yes, but not many. We are working to increase the numbers, but we must also recognize we live in a conservative society, and change takes place slowly. However, many countries have the same situation."

On Bush saying Iraq would have its oil industry running after a year or two after the invasion: "I almost fell off my chair. Why didn't he ask the experts? No one asked us."

After lunch we toured the Heritage museum that had lots of information on Ibn Battuta, a famous medieval Muslim historian. Then, we toured the compound by bus and visited the Hobby Farm and toured the stables (for the equestrians on the compound).

Getting acquainted with the horses

Afterward, we returned our residence hall to be fitted for our Abayas which we must wear when outside of the compounds, and especially in Riyadh, the capital. I must say, that women here feel that wearing abayas is no big deal. They wear them very comfortably, usually with comfortable pants and shoes underneath. We have seen ladies at the beach with shorts and pink combat boots, camoflauge trousers and sneakers, and tight jeans...but just covered with abayas. The idea is to be modest. When I think of the music videos we show in America, and how young ladies sometimes just put it all out there...I begin to wonder why there are always extremes...

Well I'm off to dinner! So far "Liz" has posted the correct answers to a previous post. Good job Liz, you get 5 points. I'll be in Arabia for another 9 days and would love to answer any questions you may have. Just email me at mmi5890@lausd.net or post the question to the blog.

Ma'assalama! Goodbye!

6 comments:

  1. HI MS.INFANTE,
    I THINK THE ANSWER FOR THIS QUESTION "How much does a barrel of oil cost today?" IS 50 DOLLARS.

    ARE YOU HAVING FUN??
    HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Liz, I'm having a GREAT time today. You are really checking my blog faithfully! Tell everyone I miss them but they'd better behave with Ms. Schooler. The price of oil is a little higher. You can look it up in newspapers or the Wall Street Journal online. Take care!

    ReplyDelete
  3. HEY MS.INFANTE,

    NOW I THINK THE BARREL OF OIL COSTS $100...WELL I WAS CHANGED FROM YOUR CLASS TO YOUR FOURTH PERIOD CLASS...SO NOW I DON'T KNOW HOW THEY ARE BEHAVING,BUT I'LL TELL SOMEONE FROM YOUR THIRD PERIOD CLASS TO TELL THE STUDENTS THAT YOU MISS THEM.

    ALWAYS,
    LIZ

    ReplyDelete
  4. Correct! Do you know the price of oil depends on many factors such as supply and demand, wars, and the amount of refineries available to process the oil when it comes out of the ground as crude oil?

    I didn't either until I came to Saudi Arabia! Award 5 points to your new group and I also have a prize for you from Saudi Arabia!

    ReplyDelete
  5. hey ms.infante,
    DO THEY SELL JUNK FOOD LIKE CHEETOS,PIZZA,ETC??
    DO THEY HAVE FAST FOOD LIKE US (TACO BELL,JACK IN THE BOX,MCDONALD)??
    I E-MAILED YOU AT mmi5890@lausd.net.

    what is the most funnn thing they do to intertain themselves including the children??
    Are the childen ever together meaning boys and girls??
    Are the showers the same as L.A??

    always,
    liz

    ReplyDelete
  6. Home security adviser of saudi arabia mentioned that oil will be sold to the US alone, between
    20- 30 $ per barrel, so they are ripping you off.

    ReplyDelete