Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia PDF
Preview Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia
Desert Kingdom Desert Kingdom How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia Toby Craig Jones HarvardUniversityPress•Cambridge,Massachusetts,andLondon,England•2010 Copyright©2010bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege Allrightsreserved PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Jones,TobyCraig,1972– Desertkingdom:howoilandwaterforgedmodernSaudiArabia/ TobyCraigJones. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-674-04985-7(cloth:alk.paper) 1.SaudiArabia—Politicsandgovernment—20thcentury. 2.Naturalresources—Governmentpolicy—SaudiArabia—History—20th century. 3.Waterresourcesdevelopment—Governmentpolicy—Saudi Arabia—History—20thcentury. 4.Water—Governmentpolicy—Saudi Arabia—History—20thcentury. 5.Petroleumindustryandtrade— Governmentpolicy—SaudiArabia—History—20thcentury. I.Title. DS244.52.J66 2010 953.805—dc22 2010013253 For Sandy, Mackenzie, and Danielle Contents 1 TheNatureoftheState 1 2 ImperialGeology 20 3 TheDogmaofDevelopment 54 4 EngineeringtheGarden 90 5 TheBlackGoldCoast 138 6 TheWagesofOil 179 7 Nature’sRetreat 217 Epilogue:HouseofWisdom 236 Notes 247 Acknowledgments 295 Index 301 TheNatureof theState 1 In November 1976,flush with billions of dollars from therecentboominoilprices,SaudiArabiacommissionedastudyof theimprobable,aprojectsofancifulthatoneengineerwouldcharac- terizeitashorrifying.Hewentontoremarkthattheprojectlay“sev- eral orders of magnitude beyond anything within [the] experience” oftheexpertsassembledtoconsiderit.1Thestudyaimedtomeasure thefeasibilityoftowinga100-million-tonicebergfromAntarcticato the Red Sea, where it was hoped the melting ice would slake the desertkingdom’sdesperateneedforfreshwater.Overthenextseveral yearsMuhammadal-Faisal,anephewoftheSaudiking,collaborated with a French polar explorer and a French engineering firm to ad- vance the endeavor. So bullish was al-Faisal on the project that he investedmillionsofhisowndollarsinthecreationofIcebergTrans- port International, a company whose sole purpose was to haul ice- bergs to the water-poor. He bragged to the New York Times that he thought tugging icebergs “a better enterprise than oil,”believing he coulddeliverdrinkablewaterfromtheSouthPole,anddosoonthe cheap.2 In spite of massive logistical challenges, the forty-one-year-old prince insisted that he couldbring to Saudi Arabia a mile-wide ice- berg,towing it on a 5,000-mile voyage in six months to a year,for a costof around$100million.Muchliketheicebergitself,thescaleof thetaskwasenormous.Themostdauntingchallengewasdelivering thebergwithoutitsmeltingfromthecombinationofthesun’spow- erful glare and the ocean’s battering waves. The prince’s technical
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