The economy of Saudi Arabia is one of the top twenty economies in the world (G20). It is dependent on oil as the country has the second-largest proven petroleum reserves, and it's the largest exporter of petroleum in the world. It also has the fifth-largest proven natural gas reserves and is considered an "Energy Superpower". With a total worth of US$34.4 trillion, Saudi Arabia has the second most valuable natural resources in the world.
Qatif or Al-Qatif is a governorate and urban area located in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. It extends from Ras Tanura and Jubail in the north to Dammam in the south, and from the Persian Gulf in the east to King Fahd International Airport in the west. This region has its own municipality and includes the Qatif downtown and many other smaller cities and towns.
Ras Tanura is a city in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia located on a peninsula extending into the Persian Gulf. The name Ras Tanura applies both to a gated Saudi Aramco employee compound and to an industrial area further out on the peninsula that serves as a major oil port and oil operations center for Saudi Aramco, the largest oil company in the world. Today, the compound has about 3,200 residents, with a few Americans and British expats.
Dhahran is a city located in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. It is a major administrative center for the Saudi oil industry. Together with the nearby cities of Dammam and Khobar, Dhahran forms part of the Dammam Metropolitan Area, which is commonly known as greater Dammam and has an estimated population of 4,140,000 as of 2012.
GlobalSantaFe Corporation was an offshore drilling contractor headquartered in Houston, Texas. It owned 59 marine drilling rigs. In November 2007, the company was acquired by Transocean.
Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum which lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the term is used to describe drilling activities on the continental shelf, though the term can also be applied to drilling in lakes, inshore waters and inland seas.
Noble Corporation plc is an offshore drilling contractor organized in London, United Kingdom. Its affiliate, Noble Corporation, is organized in the Cayman Islands. It is the corporate successor of Noble Drilling Corporation.
Rowan Companies plc, is an offshore drilling contractor that provides well drilling services to the petroleum industry. The company is incorporated in the United Kingdom and headquartered in Houston, Texas, in the United States.
A jackup rig or a self-elevating unit is a type of mobile platform that consists of a buoyant hull fitted with a number of movable legs, capable of raising its hull over the surface of the sea. The buoyant hull enables transportation of the unit and all attached machinery to a desired location. Once on location the hull is raised to the required elevation above the sea surface supported by the sea bed. The legs of such units may be designed to penetrate the sea bed, may be fitted with enlarged sections or footings, or may be attached to a bottom mat. Generally jackup rigs are not self-propelled and rely on tugs or heavy lift ships for transportation.
Rabigh Refining & Petrochemical Company is a Saudi Arabia-based company which produces and markets refined hydrocarbon and petrochemicals. The company was a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical which is now publicly held. It is traded on the Saudi Stock Exchange (TADAWUL:2380).
Khalid A. Al-Falih, is Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia and chairman of Saudi Aramco. He has previously served as the Saudi Arabian Health Minister and Aramco's CEO.
Lamprell plc, based in the United Arab Emirates specialises in the oil rig construction business. It builds shallow-water drilling jackup rigs, liftboats, land rigs and carries out rig refurbishment. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
North Drilling Company is an Iranian company specialized in drilling oil and gas wells and its services in all regions of Iran and world, to global customers. The company was privatized in June 2009. As of February 2010, Mehr Eghtesad, a quasi-government investment company, owned 20% of its shares on the Tehran Stock Exchange.
Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Assaf is Saudi Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs from 27 December 2018. He is the former long serving finance minister of Saudi Arabia and former state minister of Saudi Arabia.
PetroSkills Alliance is an initiative formed between oil and gas companies and PetroSkills to help in the creation and management of controlling factors of the courses provided by PetroSkills.
Shamoon, also known as W32.DisTrack, is a modular computer virus discovered by Seculert in 2012, targeting recent 32-bit NT kernel versions of Microsoft Windows. The virus has been noted to have behavior differing from other malware attacks, due to the destructive nature and the cost of the attack and recovery. Known years later as the "biggest hack in history," the virus was apparently intended for cyber warfare. Shamoon can spread from an infected machine to other computers on the network. Once a system is infected, the virus continues to compile a list of files from specific locations on the system, upload them to the attacker, and erase them. Finally the virus overwrites the master boot record of the infected computer, making it unusable. The virus has been used for cyber warfare against the national oil companies of Saudi Arabia's Saudi Aramco and Qatar's RasGas. Its discovery was announced on 16 August 2012 by Symantec, Kaspersky Lab, and Seculert. Similarities have been highlighted by Kaspersky Lab and Seculert between Shamoon and the Flame malware.
Amin H. Nasser is the President and CEO of Saudi Arabian Oil Company Saudi Aramco. He was acting president and chief executive until September 2015, when he assumed the positions permanently.
The King Salman Global Maritime Industries Complex is a shipyard in Ras Al-Khair, Saudi Arabia that is under construction and planned to open in late 2018. Upon completion, it will be the largest shipyard in the world.
