the al-Thanis in Qatar). But retaining power is only one metric for oil price stability. The chink in the Saudi armor is its oil-saturated, Shia-dominated Eastern Province . Here is Dharan, the headquarters of Saudi Aramco; the humongous 5-million-barrel-a-day Ghawar oilfield; the 800,000-barrel-a-day Qatif and Abu Safa oilfields; the gigantic Ras Tanura