ARAMCO: Energy For the World

Having just returned to my room, let my hair down (literally) and let it all hang out (figuratively), I figure I should get down as many of my impressions of this trip as I can while they're still fresh in my memory. And, surprisingly, I've even got some energy to do that, although I'm totally exhausted. They had us keeping very bizarre and un-college-like hours, and even two days of that took its toll on me.

Anyway, the background of the trip is this: Aramco invited Effat, or more accurately about 60 of its students and staff supervisors, to their head offices in Dahran to tour and meet some executives and get a feeling for the company, with the general future aim of creating some sort of lasting relationship that would permit the Effat graduates to be funnelled into the Aramco world. It's too bad Saudi Aramco doesn't hire Americans; it seemed like a great place to work. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I don't know how much of Aramco's history you all are familiar with, so I'll give a basic background as I now understand it. It's been, I think, well accepted that Aramco as a company has been integral in the political and (obviously) economic development of Saudi Arabia. Originally created as the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (Casco), it began as a division of the company that is Chevron today. They were granted oil concessions in 1933, and for a long time they hunted around without hitting paydirt. They'd found oil in Bahrain, and so they expected to find some in the Eastern Provinces, but they were continuously thwarted. They, at the very end of the line, one of their prospectors (so the myth goes) was sitting dejectedly on a hill by one of the oil wells (Well #7, now known as Prosperity Well) and was gazing out to Bahrain thinking about how unfair life is. What he noticed, something any Arab in the oil business could tell you today, is that Bahrain is significantly lower than the Eastern Province (the tectonic plate they're both part of slopes downwards almost continuously from the edge of the Red Sea near where I am now). He managed to convince his skeptical leaders to put in just a little more money and dig down a little further in Well #7, and obviously they found what they were looking for.

From there Aramco got progressively bigger and, as time passed, became more and more controlled by Saudi Arabia and less by the American companies originally responsible. By the late 70's the Saudi government held complete control. In 1984 the Minister of Oil also became the first Saudi CEO of Aramco, and since then the company has been run almost exclusively by Saudis and now hires almost exclusively Saudis for their Dahran offices.

One of the things I found particularly interesting about Aramco was the way that they've imbued the company with a culture that is different from typical Saudi stereotypes, and kindof seems like a throwback to the early days of IBM, with people living a life like Leave it to Beaver in Southern California, and with a sort of family-loyalty-employee committment attitude that is very early-corporate-America. I had an interesting argument with some of the other girls about whether or not they have a moral imperative to provide that sort of support and financial commitment to society outside of Aramco or not. Certainly, Aramco has always seen it to be in their best interest to help build the human potential of the country, since it is from the youth of Saudi Arabia that they draw their fresh meat, but they definitely aren't playing as big a role today as they did in the early days, when the living standards in the Eastern Province were uncontestedly the best in the country.

The other thing I was honestly impressed by was how much everybody seemed to like working there. I mean, yes, they weren't about to show Effat students people who were unhappy, but they did a very good job giving us the impression that Aramco takes care of them and in return they give their hearts and souls to The Company.

Anyway, I'll describe more of what went on later, when I get access to the pictures. I'm also losing steam on the enthusiasm. I do want to say, however, that traveling with people is a fantastic way to get to know them better, and that definitely happened here. I met some wonderful people from Aramco who offered to help me, and most importantly I really got to know the girls who were with me and the professors. I even know more names now, which is great. And I was more 'one of the gang' this trip than I am normally. And I think a lot of people got to know me better as well.

Ther ewas a girl who had her camera encrusted with pink rhinestones, though. THAT was interesting. There was a lot of childishness - the girls couldn't stay quiet, the men insisted on reminding us to go to the bathroom, the teachers continuously had to tell us to be nice to each other and to be polite and quiet and everything. And they kindof had to. But it reminded me a lot of trips I took in middle school, and NOT of trips one takes in college. But it is Saudi Arabia, and the fact that sixty girls are now really interested in getting jobs at Aramco is clearly a step in the right direction. In fact, we met a Vice President of Saudi Aramco Affairs, and he said that Saudi Arabia had to start employing its women, because at the moment it was like a boxer with one hand tied behind his back. Just that such a metaphor was used makes me have hope.

That's all I have energy for at the moment. More details to follow....