LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Saudi Arabia: World
built 643 days ago
Saudi Arabia is an oil-based economy with strong government controls over major economic activities. Saudi Arabia has the largest reserves of petroleum in the world (26% of the proved reserves), ranks as the largest exporter of petroleum, and plays a leading role in OPEC. The petroleum sector accounts for roughly 75% of budget revenues, 45% of GDP, and 90% of export earnings. About 25% of GDP comes from the private sector.
Source:
Saudi Arabia is the major focus of the current geopolitical struggle in the Middle East, and is home to Makka and Madina, the two holiest sites in Islam. Saudi oil reserves are sufficient to fuel literally any world military effort.
Source:
Saudi Arabia has two holy cities Mecca and Medina. Mecca is the place were the Prophet Muhammad was born. It is the city that millions of Muslims from every corner of the world try to visit at lest once in their lives. Medina is where the Arab man Muhammad started the Islamic teachings in the A.D. 600s.
Source:
To diversify the economy, Saudi Arabia launched a new city on the western coast with investments exceeding 26.6 billion dollars. The city which is named "King Abdullah Economic City" will be built near al-Rabegh industrial city north to Jeddah. The new city, where construction work started in Dec 2005, includes a port which is ten times larger that the largest port of Rotterdam (the largest in the world) and it can anchor giant ships as well as an industrial area for the sectors of petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and research. The city which will expand along a coast of 35 km... includes an educational city, a tourism zone and a financial stock market center.
Source:
"The most critical question facing the world energy market is whether Saudi Arabia can substantially increase its oil production to meet rising world demand in the years ahead. Sparked by personal observations of Saudi oil wells which led him to suspect that some Saudi fields were in decline, Matt Simmons has created a compelling case that Saudi Arabia production will soon reach an apex, after which its production will decline and the world will be confronted with an immense and potentially catastrophic oil shortage. The factual basis of the book is over 200 technical papers published over the last 20 years which individually detail problems with particular wells or particular fields, but which collectively demonstrate that the entire Saudi oil system is “old and fraying.” Based on his analysis, Mr. Simmons asserts that sudden and sharp oil production declines could happen at any time. Even under the most optimistic scenario, Saudi Arabia may be able to maintain current rates of production for several years, but will not be able to increase production enough to meet the expected increase in world demand. Eventually, the reckoning day will come and the world economy will be confronted with a major shock that will stunt economic growth, increase inflation, and potentially destabilize the Middle East.
Source:
Saudi Arabia signed the UN Charter in 1945. The country plays a prominent and constructive role in the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and Arab and Islamic financial and development assistance institutions. One of the largest aid donors in the world, it still gives some aid to a number of Arab, African, and Asian countries. Jeddah is the headquarters of the Secretariat of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and its subsidiary organization, the Islamic Development Bank, founded in 1969.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
World