IEEJ : June 2015. All Rights Reserved.

IEEJ May 28, 2015 seminar

The Global Causes & Effects
Of GME Energy Supplies
The Oil & Gas/LNG Pricing Outlook
And GME Developments
By
Pierre Shammas
President
APS Energy Groupapsnews@terra.net.lb
Outline: This presentation reviews the global economic and political causes and effectsof the energy supply policies in the Greater Middle East (GME) and examines the crude
oil and natural gas/LNG pricing outlook, with their impact on the Asian/Pacific markets
and the position of North American shale oil and gas producers. The position of theseproducers is simple, the big integrated IOCs are resilient enough to make some money
even if WTI is below US$50/barrel.
In the IEEJ seminar held here on May 22, 2014, I focused on the Iran-US relations andtheir effects on the GME, and on the GME’s and Asia/Pacific petroleum business. I
believe many of you, distinguished participants, attended it and obtained that presentation
which gave ample explanation of a complex situation. I regret to say that, today, I have topresent other complex situations. Therefore, I asked the organisers to give more timefor Q&A. So please begin preparing your questions from now.
This time, I focus on a basic issue in the GME: Islam. In the Q&A section, I will cover
the current GME situation, including the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Greater
Syria) – known as ISIS -- and Iran's nuclear issue which I leave for the Q&A section.
There is a huge contradiction between Islam as a religion, and political Islam that can
only carry radical ideologies and which, unfortunately, can only spread by violence. As
the Christians did centuries both before and after Islam emerged, Islam as a faith was
abused by the closest and most power-hungry aides and relatives of its Arabfounder, the Prophet Muhammad, shortly after his death in the 7th century AD. The
ideologies of the abusers can be sectarian (Shi’ism Vs Sunnism) and/or racial (Arab Vs
Persian, Persian Vs Turkic, Arab Vs Turkic, etc).
For example, there is a huge contradiction between sectarian ideologies such as Arab-led
Muslim unity which can only be based on Sunni lead, and racial ideology like Persianbased Safawim which calls for Muslim unity under Shi’ite leadership. The Sunnis are
said to account for about 94% of the entire Muslim population - said to be 1.6 billion.
Each of my words in this and other paragraphs can be loaded with a lot of issues theseriousness of which is beyond the scope of my presentation today. But I shall answer
any question you might raise during the Q&A section.

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In founding political Islam, these abusers ceased being true Muslim. Deep down, all ofthem became atheist in theological terms as soon as they established Islamist ideologies
or took over power in any part of the Muslim world – which is a far larger than the Arabregion. The Arab region is much smaller than the GME. The GME is by far the largest
energy reservoir in the world; it is rich in conventional and non-conventional petroleum
and will remain so even after the most advanced powers in global politics have reached
the phase of post-energy – or at least less-energy intensive - economics.
The GME, including a big part of Russia, is the land of conspiracy theories – one of its
most common diseases. Israeli PM Netanyahu says Obama’s team is fooled by Iran’s
new President Rowhani, whose top aides are negotiating with the US for a “grand deal”.
Rowhani is a moderate Safawi. His main rivals are extremist Safawis in the rulingcommand of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which controls Iran’s
nuclear/missiles development programmes and GME ambitions, as well as among themost power-hungry aides to the Shi’ite theocracy’s ailing Supreme Leader Khamenei including Qom-based ayatullahs who are theologically more senior than Khamenei.
Syria’s ‘Alawite President Bashar al-Assad, whose enemies call “a tyrant worse thanHitler”, is not relevant to what the Safawi/Shi’ite theocracy is negotiating with the US-led
5+1 powers over its nuclear ambitions. Israel and Saudi Arabia, however, are regularly
briefed about the progress of these talks by France and the US. Yet both Israel and theSaudis do not trust Obama, whom they regard as being too weak a president and who
Riyadh fears is being exploited by Netanyahu and Tehran.
Meanwhile, Assad’s regime is fighting two main wars: (1) against Syria’s Sunni-led
majority, in which Iran and its Lebanese unit Hizbullah and fellow Safawi groups fromother countries trying all means to protect him against the Sunnis, and (2) against Iran’s
theocracy itself in Lebanon. Those here who are subscribers to the APS Diplomat
newsletters are advised to see news21SyrIrnIsrNov18-13 if they need a detailed
explanation. From here on, I may or may not believe what I review is true.
It is important for you to know that Saudi scholars believe Iran’s Safawism is only avehicle for the continuation of the Sassanid Persian Empire, which was defeated by
the Arabs who then forefully Islamised Persia. Thus, the Saudi scholars argue, Safawism
is a racial ideology to revive Persian supremacism over the world and to destroy Islam
after the entire Muslim community has been conquered by the “Neo-Persian Empire”.
Riyadh leads the Sunni front in the Muslim world via the 57-state Organisation of Islamic
Co-operation (OIC), in which Iran is the only Shi’ite member. Riyadh says political
Islam is trying to kill the faith which was revealed to an illiterate, Muhammad, by God
through the angel Gabriel appearing to him in a cave near Mecca in 610 AD. Gabrielthen recited the Qur’an; and his followers say he miraculously memorised it.
Riyadh stresses that the Qur’an is a divine revelation and cannot be interpreted at will, as
those involved in political Islam have been doing since Muhammad’s death. But the
Saudis, following a modernised and moderated version of Wahhabism – a reformist
Sunni movement which emerged in the 18th century (see background of the underlined words in Google). They say Sunnis and Shi’ites involved in political Islam are
not really Muslim, or atheists, pointing to Iran’s Safawism as being by far the mostserious threat to Islam (as explained in the Diplomat’s sbme5SafawismNov25-13).
In a talk with APS, an ex-agent of the Pentagon’s National Security Agency (NSA)
whose head controls the US spy networks (see news19US-GlblSayNov4-13) agrees that
Safawism is the most dangerous ideology on the global scale. Talking on condition
that his name is not revealed, he points to the special link between the IRGC and NeoSalafism, a trans-national Sunni movement born from Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood

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(MB). The MB has branches in many parts of the Muslim world and has a tacticalalliance with Tehran.
The best-known part of the Neo-Salafi movement are ISIS and al-Qaeda Central(AQC) based on the AfPak border, founded by Usama bin Laden whose mentor was
Palestinian MB member Shaikh ‘Abdullah ‘Azzam. ‘Azzam was killed in 1989 by aPeshawar bomb planted by the Soviets whose troops were being readied to evacuatefrom Afghanistan. Bin Laden was killed in early May 2011 in Pakistan by UScommandos. Half of bin Laden’s clan and many of his commanders, as well as his
rival Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi, fled to Iran as the US invaded Afghanistan late 2001.
At this point it is important to note that ISIS is led by the latest of the successors of
Zarqawi, an arch-terrorist killed in a June 2006 US air-strike in Iraq.
The ex-NSA agent gives as an example of Assad’s war against Tehran’s theocracy themassive Nov. 19, 2013 twin-bombings of the Iranian embassy in Beirut. Those killed
and wounded -- over 175 people -- included a top Iranian diplomat and Hizbullah
personnel whose families lived in near-by buildings most affected by the huge damage.
The agent says most of those involved in political Islam are idiots including those
who lead them as rulers or group chiefs, “like Assad himself and the IRGC”. He says
the IRGC is “a re-incarnation of the Qizilbash”, a Turkoman force which helped
the first Safawi theocracy to emerge in 1501 and destroyed it later.
He says: “The arrogant theocracy and the IRGC commanders think the rest of theworld is made up of idiots. They seek to out-smart all people or powers, including
Obama’s administration. They’re sure they can get away with all they do aroundthe world, in the name of ‘establishing global justice’; stupid people believe them”.
The Nov. 19, 2013, bombing was claimed by the ‘Abdullah ‘Azzam Brigades’ (AAB)
Lebanese unit. The bombers’ command then said its attack was in response to Iran’s
involvement in Assad’s war on the Syrian people as well as the imprisonment of its men
in Lebanese jails for many years. The ex-NSA agent says some of these men were partof Fatah al-Islam (FaI), a Neo-Salafi group partly Palestinian and created by
Assad’s intelligence. The others were of a Neo-Safafi group from north Lebanon’s Sir
al-Dunniyé hills also created by Assad’s intelligence in the early 2000s, when Syrian
troops were occupying Lebanon since 1976. Members of both groups were jailed in
Lebanon before and after the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) defeated FaI in a war during
2007. Iran accused Israel. Hizbullah also accused the GCC states.
The ex-agent, well informed about radical Shi’ite and Sunni groups in the GME (seethe background of the NSA & the “Five Eyes” in APS news19US-GlblSayNov4-13),says the AAB is part of ISIS. ISIS had grown from an early 2013 merger of a small Iranbased Qaeda unit and the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI); which had been a proxy for
Assad’s intelligence. The ISI was created with IRGC’s help and brought from Iraq
to Syria in 2012 for Assad to prove to the world he was fighting terrorism, rather
than a Syrian revolution – which had begun peacefully against his regime in mid-March
2011.
The ex-agent says the Nov. 19, 2013 operation was organised by Assad’s regime tosend three messages: to Tehran that Assad could not be sold out for its proposed
Iran-US nuclear deal, to the other anti-Assad fighting groups that ISIS was the only
fighter on the Syrian war-front, and to Beirut to free its Sir al-Dunniyé men – justbefore Lebanon’s Independence Day celebration.
The ex-agent says the ISI first had another name: an IRGC-guided al-Qaeda in
Mesopotamia (AQM) - and was created jointly by Assad’s regime and the IRGC to fight
US forces soon after the latter invaded Iraq in 2003. Now Iran’s involvement on Assad’s

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side of the Syrian war includes IRGC fighters, their external units like al-Quds Force,
Hizbullah and fellow Safawi groups from the GME’s other Shi’ite communities.
He says: “…like Khamenei, IRGC’s command and leaders of its various units thinkmost Iranians are stupid”. He adds: “The Safawi leaders depend more on theirwishful thinking than on most facts in planning and executing their strategies,
rather than having properly analysed those facts”.
The ex-agent notes, however, that the IRGC and its units “are well-trained and armed forasymmetrical warfare”, while Assad’s armed forces have been greatly weakened anddepleted by the revolution and the savagery of the war. As an example, the ex-agent
says, their capture of any town in Syria has become typical: Assad army tanks, airforce and artillery level it. The IRGC and its units do the fighting. Assad’s groundtroops then enter the town and pose for cameras.
While Tehran thinks the Riyadh-led Sunni states are not truly Muslim, the latter have
moved strongly against players in political Islam led by Iran’s theocracy. The Sunni
states, including those of the GCC, warn against their local opponents using politicised
religious platforms -- stressing the need to insulate such venues from any sectarianrhetoric. They insist places of worship must be left to focus on true Islam’s values. The
GCC is said to have a cash-pile and assets worth between US$3.8 and 7 trillion.

Cairo Rejects MB Deal
With King ‘Abdullah (who died at dawn on Jan. 23, 2015) having steered Egypt’s
Field Marshal ‘Abdul-Fattah al-Sissi against political Islam, this military chief on
July 3, 2013, ousted then Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi (of the MB) and in late
May 2014 was elected president. With Mursi and the rest of the MB leadership jailed andtried for high treason, most of them face a death sentence. Repeatedly since then,President Sissi has rejected reconciliation – even peace with moderates in the MB. The
MB now is banned in Egypt and some GCC states – mostly the UAE -- as “terrorists”.
Yet ‘Abdullah’s successor, King Salman, is no longer treating the MB as a terrorist
organisation, as the UAE does – though Riyadh keeps its distance from the MB’s
leadership. King Salman does not deport MB-affiliated Egyptians from Saudi Arabia.
I have mentioned all these matters because they all have effects – in some cases major
effects - on the current and future petroleum supplies from the GME. This isbecause there is a Saudi-led oil price war against Iran and Russia, as well as on thosevery big US IOCs having wide exposure to North American shale oil and gas and othernon-conventional petroleum resources – tight oil, tight gas, ultra-sour oil & gas, etc. – onwhich I will focus in the Q&A section. Riyadh is forcing the IOCs to be his US lobbyists.
There has been big change in Saudi Arabia since King ‘Abndullah died. King
Salman on Jan. 23 swiftly concentrated all power in his Sudairy inner circle. This
now covers all the sectors, including Saudi Aramco and its leadership and the oil pricewar with global consequences. But I still have some important geo-strategic points to
make. In the Q&A section I will explain who advises King Salman’s inner circle.

The Russian Church Warning Of Genocide Against Christians
Beginning to pressure Russia’s Neo-Soviet President Putin who is backing Iran’s
theocracy and Assad’s regime, the Russian Orthodox Church has since 2013 been
warning of “genocide” against Christians and other religious minorities in the GME,
joining the Vatican in urging the international community to take action in Iraq, Lebanon
and Syria – the three crucial parts of the planned Persian Empire, other than YemenIEEJ : June 2015. All Rights Reserved.

which has no Christians but is also crucial to the Persian Empire at it controls a very
important part of global trade like the Strait of Hormuz which the IRGC controls – I will
explain all these points in the Q&A section.
The call of the Russian church – now quite powerful among the Christians in the former
Soviet Union (FSU) -- came in a 2013 forum held in Liechtenstein and dedicated to thewar in Syria. The forum was attended by Catholic and Orthodox clergy along with
diplomats - including Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN/Arab League envoy for Syrian peace atthat time. Despite Putin’s demand, the US then barred Iran from planned Geneva-II
peace talks for Syria.
Metropolitan Hillarion of Volokolamsk, who heads the Moscow Patriarchate’s Foreign
Relations Department, told that forum: “we all should express a strong protest against thecurrent genocide of Christians in the GME which is a purposeful policy pursued by theextremist and terrorist [Muslim] forces aimed at the total elimination of Christianity inthis region”. (UK leaders then were already warning that Christianity in Britain may
eventually disappear. The French and other EU states now are saying the samething – with their religious scholars describing the presence of more than 20 million
Muslims in Europe as the biggest Islamic invasion of that continent – and the figures
keep rising every year).
Hillarion said politicians and the media rarely raised the issue of the persecution of
Christians, adding: “Every week we receive news that bandits have destroyed a Christianmonastery or church, kidnapped or killed a cleric, raped a Christian woman and that
Christian families have been ousted from their houses. It is necessary to take steps toprotect the Christian population of the GME…”.
The Islamist suicide bomber is the poor man's air force. The rich have Stealth bombers,
the poor have Toyota Corollas, both filled with explosives. The human bombers are notas smart as the Western air force pilots but are much more dangerous as they can be
anywhere and can kill many more people.

The Saudi Changes
Khaled al-Faleh on Aug. 29, 2015, was made health minister. Until then he waspresident/CEO of Saudi Aramco, which is intended to become the world’s largest among
the integrated IOCs producing and marketing the entire chains of the petroleum, chemicaland electric power businesses – in Saudi Arabia and abroad including the Asian/Pacificmarket. Already Saudi Aramco is the world’s largest energy firm. But Faleh was madechairman of Saudi Aramco’s board of directors, replacing Minister ‘Ali al-Na’imi.
And, in fact, the whole of Saudi Arabia is re-structuring. Being separated from the
Ministry of Petroleum & Mineral Resources, Saudi Aramco is destined to operate under a
new Supreme Petroleum Council under the hands-on chairmanship of King Salman’s
youngest and smartest son, Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad ibn Salman, aged 30,
who is also chairman of the kingdom’s all-powerful Economic & Development
Commission, as well as being the 2nd Deputy PM and minister of defence. One of his
major tasks was a huge military offensive in Yemen called Operation Decisive Storm(ODS). He is advised by a large number of experts, Saudi and foreign.
Involving a Saudi-led coalition of 10 Arab states and Malaysia (from the non-Arabpart of the OIC), ODS has become the template for all future Saudi-led military
offensives in other Arab countries “raped to be controlled by Iran”, though each may
have a different name.

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In parallel to that, is the same coalition’s Operation Restore Hope (ORH), which is to
re-build Yemen and prepare it to become a member of the Arab Gulf Co-operation
Council (GCC). In both cases, the man responsible for ODS is Prince Muhammad ibn
Salman – a rarely smart and excessively hard-working as well as the most tiring man in
the leadership. The latter description was made to me by one of his closest aides, whosays: “He is so demanding that you can easily risk becoming fed-up with him”. And
the man in charge of Saudi Arabia’s national, regional and global security interests
behind both ODS and ORG is Crown Prince (CP) and 1st Deputy PM Prince
Muhammad ibn Nayef (Salman’s full-nephew – i.e. a full Sudairy). Aged 55,
Muhammad ibn Nayef makes sure that the decisions or actions of his younger fullcousin and deputy (Muhammad ibn Salman) are cleared according to the all the
security requirements – national, regional and global. This is in the CP’s capacity as
Chairman of the all-powerful Political & Security Commission and as Minister ofInterior.
Muhammad ibn Nayef was the man who defeated al-Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula (AQAP) in the past decade, to the extent that AQAP had to flee the kingdom
and establish its base in South-Eastern Yemen with the permission of Yemen’s thendictator, from 1978 to early 2012 President ‘Ali-‘Abdullah Saleh. Muhammad ibn
Nayef’s Interior Ministry has by far the largest full-time armed force in the Arabregion – 500,000 men equipped with the world’s most advanced weapons systems
required for security including counter-errorism. This is in addition to the Saudi
Interior Ministry’s Centre for the Rehabilitation of Saudi terrorists – be they in
AQAP, in ISIS or in any other group. This centre is unique, which continues to impress
the US and other big powers. Muhammad ibn Nayef also is advised by a large numberof experts, Saudi and foreign.
With King Salman having served as Emir of the huge Riyadh Province and capital
city for 60 years as well as top adviser to all the kings of Saudi Arabia including hisfather and founder of the current Saudi dynasty, ‘Abdul-‘Aziz “ibn Saud”, sits as
the mentor of the two young Muhammads – this being apart from his position as
absolute ruler. He had begun work when he was in his teens. He even served in the
Egyptian army briefly in one of its wars against Israel. He has always beeen one of themost informed princes, reading most of the top Arab daily newspapers, listering to radio
and TV broadcasts, receiving intelligence reports, etc. One of his aides says he has had
one of the most surprising memories of people, leaders, etc.

Who Are The Ruling Sudairys & What Can They Do?
The Sudairys are the most aristocratic elite of the huge al-Dawaser confederation oftribes in Arabia. Wadi al-Dawaser and its peripheral territories account for the largest
part of the Arabian Peninsula. The late ‘Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud’s mother was a Sudairy and,for centuries, female members of this clan were married to male members of the Saudfamily’s three dynasties, with the first one founded in the 18th century.
ODS dealt the most severe blow to Iran’s Safawi theocracy as it decisively cut andkilled its arm that reached Yemen – the most humiliating defeat in the modern
history of Safawism. This was demonstrated in the Yemeni “Salvation” [peace]
Congress held in Riyadh on May 17-19, 2015. Attended by over 250 Yemeni
politicians and tribal leaders including a major part of Saleh’s once ruling General
People’s Congress (GPC) party, this ended with the Riyadh Declaration after having reelected Yemeni President ‘Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to another term. ORH will
demonstrate how, under King Salman’s watch, the two co-ruling Muhammads will

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help the Yemeni people re-build their homeland and eventually make it a full GCC
member.
Just for comparison, Iran’s theocracy has since the 1980s moved to control Yemen – inparicular its Gulf of Aden region which controls the southern entrance to the Red Sea –called Bab al-Mandab - connecting the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean – just as Iranbelieves it already controls the Strait of Hormuz. Through Lebanon and Syria, Iran says it
controls the east of the Mediterranean. It has controlled the Zaidi Shi’ite militants ofal-Houthi clan which claims to control Yemen’s north-western province of Sa’da –bordering Saudi Arabia. The Iranian plan, according to Riyadh, was to partition
Yemen and thus ultimately dis-member Saudi Arabia, destroy the GCC and takefull control of the Arabian Peninsula – in partnership with the Sunni MB.
In his speech closing the Yemeni Congress in Riyadh, President Hadi said the Houthis
only had a following of about 10% of Sa’da’s population of less than half a million.
He said Iran took control of the Houthis after its theologians told their young chief,‘Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, that he was the divine “Al-Mahdi” -- the 12th and holiest
Imam of the Twelver Shi’ites – the sect of Iran’s theocracy.
To control both the southern and northern parts of Yemen, Iran’s theocracy engineered analliance between the Houthis and Saleh, a man widely described as a “crook” whoassembled a personal fortune worth US$60 billion. Through his long rule, he createdthe Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) with the sole purpose of defending his dictatorshipand personal interests. Saleh proudly calls himself “the best manipulator of thesnakes”.
Many of you probably learned of globally circulated press reports out recently saying that
Iran’s senior theocrats and top IRGC commanders are multi-billionaires in US
dollar terms. They are said to each have a private empire. There are said to be about 200
private sea-ports and many airports in Iran belonging to such billionaires, in a country of
more than 70 million people, of whom about 30% are said to be below the poverty line.
Each of the senior billionaires is even wealthier than the last Pahlavi king and his
family members were before their fall in early 1979. It is claimed that Khamenei sits overan empire worth about US$95 billion. These are just examples how the foreign media
occasionally describe what is really happening inside the Iranian theocracy. I do notknow if this is true of not. But I do know that my Iranian friends who served under thetheocracy’s two former presidents are exceptionally nice – being honest and modest,
which means they are really smart, not idiots, but sad.
King Salman, aged almost 80, wants to enjoy seeing the likes of the Saudi-led ODS
and ORH models deliver a fatal blow to the Safawi theocracy which, as a result, will
only prove to the world that it is not more than a destroyer of countries – rather thanan empire builder.
At this point, please bear in mind that I am too far from being a spokesman for the
Saudis or an opponent of the Iranians. I have more friends from among Iranians
now suffering from Tehran’s out-sized ambitions than from among the Saudis. I am
not even a Muslim or an Arab. I am a mere citizen of the world.

The Oil & Gas/LNG Pricing Outlook
What I have said so far provides the grounds for the causes and effects of the GME’s
energy supplies. The crude oil and natural gas/LNG pricing outlook is relatively lesscomplicated. There has been a global oil and gas glut around the world since JuneIEEJ : June 2015. All Rights Reserved.

2014. And this has given the Saudi-led GCC bloc in OPEC the most appropriate
opportunity to launch a price war and thus help boost the world’s economy until
prices recover as a result of a re-bound in global oil demand. The Saudis call it amarket share effort, rather than a price war.
This war will prove that all of OPEC’s price hawks are basically failed states tooheavily dependent on a high oil price for their easier way to towards controlling theirpeople. In short, they depend too heavily on the oil curse, or the Dutch Disease – justto explain to you how smart they have been for the past decades. The same goes for the
price hawks among the non-OPEC oil exporters led by Russia.
Of course, I shall explain in detail any point you will raise during the Q&A section of thismeeting.
The oil and gas glut was the result of demand destruction, which itself resulted fromhigh oil and gas/LNG prices in the past decade. The Saudis in charge say a
US$100/barrel crude oil is a thing of the past. Frankly I don’t know. There are mixed
thoughts about this matter.
Low oil prices are causing LNG prices to fall. However, there is a difference in LNG
pricing in the Asian/Pacific market simply because the buyers who need the LNG pay a
premium if they lack the leverage to compell the sellers to lower their prices or cancel
their premium. The latter point relates to a proper management, or the lack of it, of thebargaining position required of the buyers.
The Asian/Pacific buyers much build up a proper management of their position – acollective bargaining position can be obtained from the creation of an LNG futures
market, or at least a futures market for natural gas – including re-gasified LNG.
For the time being, the most proper management of the bargaining position from the sideof the buyers – if there is no such management, be that for crude oil or for LNG – ishedging in futures markets. These markets are the ones setting the price trends, up or
down. But, of course, there are no strong LNG or pipeline gas futures markets in
Asia/Pacific.
The value of the US dollar and the level of commercial inventories together play the mostimportant role in setting prices, up or down. When the dollar is high, the oil price is low,
and vice-versa. When the inventories are high, the oil price is low, and vice-versa.
There are, naturally, other factors such as geo-politics which I believe was a subject
explained around what I said before.
Saudi Aramco, meanwhile, plans to set up a drilling academy to produce the world’s
best drillers. Saudi Aramco’s largely young work-force seeking new oil and gas sources
around the country have been excelling in tough environments.
In the desert of Khurais at 11:30 pm recently, Saudi Aramco’s work teams drilled todepths of between 7,000 and 13,000 feet. It was a major challenge which they completed
successfully.
Safety and efficiency are critical elements of every project under-taken by Saudi Aramco.
There is also an emphasis on managing its equipment, which has been a key part ofthe company’s success for almost eight decades.
‘Abdul Hamid al-Rashid, the chief driller at Saudi Aramco, recently said: “The biggest
challenge starts with drilling. We dig every-where in the kingdom, on land and in the sea,in the toughest fields”.

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The company’s drilling teams have to deal with high temperatures, and pressurised gases.
It has lately been hiring many Saudi citizens. Rashid said: “The drilling and maintenanceof the wells have seen a successful move towards complete Saudisation.
Saudi Aramco rigs have 95% Saudis, while it is 65% for the rigs belonging to mostly
foreign contractors. Speaking about the offshore Manifa field in the Gulf, Rashid said it
was a “unique and extremely complex field” that required close co-operation between
various project teams including environmental protection, to ensure successful extractionof the resources. He training was a priority for Saudi Aramco. He noted: “There is acommittee authorised to review policies, procedures and practices to ensure compliancewith the highest standards in the industry. We place great importance on this. There isalso a special team for wells ready to deal with emergencies”.
With most operations being in remote areas, rig operators live away from their families
for long periods. It is also difficult finding experienced rig operators. Young recruits haveto be in the drilling area all the time to co-ordinate in accordance with the plan withservice firms, engineers and other logistics services for the delivery of requied material.
Thank you.

Contact：report@tky.ieej.or.jp