Do you believe that Saudi Arabia cannot survive without oil?

Question

well, this is one of our motion for next english debate competition. I would ask your opinion about 'Saudi Arabia cannot survive without oil' so what do you think?

Answer 1

Well, it survived before oil was discovered.

Answer 2

lol, im saudi and i think we cant survive as an economy without oil. 100 years ago we were living in the desert and in the next 100 years will be living in the desert. All most every saudi know's this. and we're not ashamed to admit it lol. we really dont care. and about what the other guy said about petrochemicals, they come from oil, so its a different economioc recource.

P.S: u can use my answer in ur debate, u can tell them what a real saudi thinks about the situation.

Answer 3

II am a saudi and i love economic topics : )

of course we can survive without oil. We survived before the oil boom in the 1970s.

- Oil sector accounts for 45% of the Saudi GDP

- There are many other industries in Saudi Arabia, of course oil is the main engine for the economy.

- The country is going through diversification the resources

- Crude oil is just one pillar of the economy. The other very important pillar is Saudi Petrochemical industries lead by SABIC, which is in its way to become world leader in this industry. Even if the world found another source of energy (though this unlikely yet), the world will need a lot of plastic, textile and many other things that are generated from petrochemical industries.

With China and India booms, we boom, even if the oil comes from somewhere else. These companies buy the oil from ARAMCO who sells crude oil.

To give you perspective: SABIC (which is the Petrochemical Co.) is expected to have a total revenue in 2008 of around 40 billion dollars, which is equal to the whole GDP of Bulgaria or Ecuador.

- Having 2 holy mosques, makes the saudi is one of most important visited places in the world. There are mega real estate projects around that area to take advantage and serve the visiters.

- Saudi is somehow trying to follow some of the steps of UAE, which is an oil producing country but had great strides in diversifying to other service, real estate and industrial projects.

Then, the most important factor:

A land with this amount of oil, must be rich with other things. Don't you think so?

Majority of mineral resources in Saudi Arabia is still unexplored. We have load of wealth of gold, iron ore, copper, phosphates, silver, uranium, bauxite, coal, tungsten, lead and zinc that is waiting to be exploited.

Just last week we had a big IPO for the Phosphate company of 15 billion dollars. Saudi has the biggest reserve of Phosphate in the world. Phosphate goes into fertalizer industry (i.e. agricultures). Now, with the Bio Fuel as an extra source of energy, demand on phosphate will be higher.

Saudi is expected to have 20% share of world production of phosphate and it will be another major pillar of the economy.

There has been mega other projects to utilize the natural gas in Saudi, which will be another extra income for the economy.

So, yes, without oil we might have less GDP and less per capita income, but we will survive, very well.

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The question that I like to post: Will the world survive if Saudi stop the oil? The oil embargo in 1973 was a minor reduction in oil production. It was not a total cut of oil and it shaked the world.

The reason was that Saudi was talking for years to the US to reduce their support to Israel in their aggression against Palestine (something the whole world agree except US)

I don't know if you know this story:

Henry Kissinger told King Faisal: If Saudi Arabia doesn't lift the boycott, they will come and bomb the oilfields.

So he replied: "You know, we come from the desert, and we have been living on camel milk and dates and things, and we can easily go back and live in the desert again."

In reality, today, there will never be another oil embargo for many reasons. But, also, Saudi is doing good homework in diversifying resources and exploring the other wealth that this country have. So, even without oil, we will not go back to tents and camels.

Answer 4

yes, i believe so. and i'm saudi. we don't have that much toursim places.

Answer 5

Yes,

They depend on it too much

Answer 6

Not to the standard of living they are accostomed to. Without oil, why would anyone else pay any attention to them.