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Saudi Arabian oil was first discovered in commercial quantities at Dammam well No. 7 in 1938 now modern day Dhahran. ==Before the discovery of oil== On January 15, 1902, ‘Abd-al’-Aziz ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman Al Sa’ud took Riyadh from the Rashid tribe. In 1913, his forces captured the province of al-Hasa, from the Ottoman Turks. In 1922 he completed his conquest of the Nejd, and in 1925 he conquered the Hijaz. In 1932, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was proclaimed with ‘Abd-al’-Aziz as king.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Saudi Aramco World : Prelude to Discovery )〕 Without stability in the region, the search for oil would have been difficult, as evidenced by early oil exploration in neighbouring countries such as Yemen and Oman.〔()〕 Prior to 1938, there were three main factors that triggered the search for oil in Arabia: * The discovery of oil by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company at Masjid-i-Sulaiman in the mountains of north-western Persia in 1908; but the consensus of geological opinion at the time was that there was no oil on the Arabian peninsula, although there were rumours of an oil seepage at Qatif on the eastern seaboard of al-Hasa, the eastern province of Arabia. * The demand for oil during World War I. Throughout the war, it became obvious that oil was going to be a crucial resource in warfare for the foreseeable future.〔 Examples that proved this were “General Gallieni’s commandeering of the Paris taxi fleet to ferry soldiers to the front. This happened when the city seemed about to fall”.〔Singer, Clifford E. Energy and International War: from Babylon to Baghdad and beyond. Vol. 6. Singapore: World Scientific, 2008. Print. Energy and Resource Economics.〕 In addition to this, Germany’s shortage of oil supplies hindered their ability to produce aircraft, automobiles, and engines. The allies took advantage of this by producing thousands of vehicles to aid their war effort.〔 * The onset of the Great Depression. Prior to the depression, a major source of income for the ruler of Hijaz was the taxes paid by pilgrims on their way to the holy cities. After the depression hit, the number of pilgrimages per year fell from 100,000 to below 40,000.〔 This hurt their economy greatly and they needed to find alternate sources of income. This caused King ‘Abd-al’-Aziz to get serious about the search for oil. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the oil industry in Saudi Arabia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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