Saudi Arabia: Land of Milk and Honey

I love hearing new and unique perspectives. Today I discovered a whole new side of Saudi Arabia. Osama Bin Laden was elected in Saudi Arabia and Americans actually largely supported his election. However, "Americans are funny," some say. American leadership fluctuates so often, compared to the rest of the world, that one President's ally could be another President's enemy. There was once an oil trader whose first deal was in Saudi Arabia. He met with the King back in the 90's after meeting one of the Saudi Princes in London. The two of them wound up having a long conversation about religion, since this particular oil trader was in the ministry prior to his new profession. The king soon decided he liked the aspiring trader, picked up the phone, and told one of his ministers to give him 50,000 barrels of oil, for a start.

There are a lot of nuances to the oil business. An oil business owner must have an office in London, a line of credit from a French bank, and transport the oil using Greek carriers (at least in the 90's before Greece's tax ascent). Back in the 90's, 40 million barrels of oil were exported daily across the globe, with 20 million barrels going to the United States. Now, 100 million barrels are exported per day. To date, Saudi Arabia exports 8% of the world's oil.

With His Excellency Ambassador Abdallah Y. Al-Mouallimi of Saudi Arabia 

The Saudi King shared his world view with trader prior to closing the deal. Basically, he believed that Americans are Israel's "young son." In some ways, Americans think they are supranational: if they believe another country is doing something wrong, they will go in and bomb them. The United States is still a very young country and a bit naive, according to him. In addition, he had a much different interpretation of the Abrahamic story from the Bible. Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram, and the first born holds the inheritance. In Genesis, God also tells Abraham that he will "make thy seed as the sands of the sea" and that they will inherit many nations. He pointed out that Israel is small: perhaps America & Israel are in that camp, but the Arab world consists of many nations and is truly the "land flowing with milk and honey," since oil is the modern bread of life. He pointed out that Israel doesn't have a single drop of oil: a unique interpretation to a story I grew up hearing as a child.
My fortune cookie the day before said, "listen to everyone, truth is everywhere." I couldn't agree more. At the end of the day, we all hold different and unique interpretations of scripture. Chevron was one of the first companies to find oil in Saudi Arabia some 70 years ago before Saudi was even a country. Now, Saudi uses oil to desalinate ocean water into fresh water. An impressive 30% of Saudi Arabia's national budget goes to fund education, a remarkable feat for any country. "We achieved this by first focusing on access to education. The first time we opened a school for girls, we had to surround the school with police to handle the opposition. One year later, the same protestors were trying to get their daughters in that school," said Ambassador Al-Mouallimi. The United States and Saudi Arabia have a wonderful commercial relationship, I absolutely adore the Saudi UN Ambassador, and we shake hands as Abraham's descendants.

Energy from the United Arab Emirates to the United Kingdom

Or was it the United Kingdom to the United Arab Emirates? Within the palace walls in Abu Dhabi hangs a picture of the first oil deal made in the Middle East. This was long before Saudi Arabia was even a country. The UAE was merely a territory too, not a country, owned by the Brits. The photograph captures a well-dressed English man pointing to a paper, where a shepherd wearing a headdress is signing. There are sheep in the background witnessing the event. The current Emir of Dubai pointed to the shepherd and tells his guests, "that is my great grandfather." The English man pictured was from British Petroleum.

103 years later, Dubai hosted the World Energy Forum in 2012, the same year London hosted the Summer Olympics at the ExCel Convention Center. The ExCel Center was built by the Emir of Dubai and is the largest convention center in London. The ExCel owners attended the Energy Forum in Dubai last year and begged World Energy Forum to come to England. World Energy Forum is pleased to announce that World Energy Forum 2014 will be held in London, United Kingdom, addressed by His Highness Prince Charles, Crown Prince of the United Kingdom. Sometimes commercial incentives transcend political discord. Sometimes age-old partnerships revitalize hundreds of years later, and we stand back and witness nations unite once again.