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Saudi Arabia
OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY
Saudi Arabia is the world's most important oil producer. Given
its relatively high production levels, accounting for nearly 13
percent of world output and 35 percent of total OPEC output in
1991, and, more significantly, its small domestic needs, the kingdom's
dominance of international crude oil markets is unchallenged.
Although reluctant to play the role, Saudi Arabia has become the
"swing producer," balancing international oil demand and supply.
Therefore, within limits, Saudi oil production policies can have
a profound impact on international prices. Since the early 1970s,
the kingdom has occasionally used this dominance to influence
oil prices, usually to further its objectives of sustaining long-term
oil consumption and ensuring economic stability in the industrialized
world.
The oil sector is the key domestic production sector; oil revenues
constituted 73 percent of total budgetary revenues in 1991. Precise
statistics for expenditures on sector development were not available
but some estimates placed the annual figure at US$5 billion to
US$7 billion, or less than 10 percent of total budgetary expenditures.
Export oil revenues accruing to Saudi Aramco, a large portion
of which is allocated to the budget, accounted for 90 percent
of total exports in 1991. Only in the number of jobs was the oil
sector relatively unimportant to the economy; the capital-intensive
nature of the oil industry required few workers--less than 2 percent
of the labor force in the early 1990s.
Data as of December 1992
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