Economy of Arabia
- Arabic:
- Jazīrat Al-ʿArab (“Island of the Arabs”)
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The mineral resource of greatest value is oil. The Arabian Peninsula has the largest oil reserves in the world. With the exception of deposits in Yemen, the Arabian oil fields lie in the same great sedimentary basin as the fields of Iran and Iraq. Although oil was discovered in Iran in 1908, the first field on the Arabian side of the basin, in Bahrain, was not found until 1932. This inspired an intensive search in eastern Arabia that in time reached far into the interior. Oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia in 1938, in Kuwait and Qatar in 1940, on the mainland of the Saudi Arabia/Kuwait Neutral Zone in 1953, on the mainland of Abu Dhabi in 1960, in Oman in 1964, in South Yemen in 1983, and in North Yemen in 1984. In 1951 oil was discovered in the Persian Gulf off Saudi Arabia, in 1958 in Abu Dhabi offshore, and in 1960 in the Saudi Arabia/Kuwait Neutral Zone offshore.
In association with the oil are enormous amounts of natural gas. Making use of this gas commercially requires extremely large investments. Some gas is liquefied for local consumption or for export, and some is reinjected into the oil-bearing strata for storage and to help maintain pressure for oil production.
The Arabian countries are attempting economic diversification, though the abundance of oil is a disincentive. Ancient mining sites bear witness to once-flourishing production of minerals: gold at the old mine of Mahd al-Dhahab in the Hejaz; silver at a mine in the mountains west of Maʾrib; and very large copper production in Oman (until deforestation exhausted the supplies of wood for on-site smelting). Deposits of iron have been found in the northern Hejaz and Najd. Other resources, some of which are being exploited, are barite, gypsum, salt, lime for cement, clay for bricks and pottery, shale, quartz sand for glass, marble, and building stone.
For many centuries the oyster beds of the Persian Gulf produced some of the world’s finest pearls, and pearling was once a thriving and profitable occupation. Bahrain was the chief centre, and the Trucial States (now the United Arab Emirates), Qatar, and Saudi Arabia also participated. Since about 1931 the trade has declined continuously as a result of the world economic depression, the competition of Japanese cultured pearls, and the siphoning off of labour into other less onerous and more lucrative fields.
Even in the southwest, where rainfall is heaviest, the water supply is not constant enough for the generation of power. The scarcity of water and the poor quality of the soil have hampered the development of an export trade in agricultural produce. Progress has been made by individual states in improving irrigation systems and expanding cultivated areas.