R 150906Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY RIYADH
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 3738
INFO GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
AMEMBASSY PARIS
AMEMBASSY LONDON
AMEMBASSY MUSCAT
AMCONSUL JEDDAH
C O N F I D E N T I A L RIYADH 009085
DHAHRAN SENDS
PARIS FOR WALLER, LONDON FOR TSOU
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/15/2016
TAGS: ECON EPET KIRF PA PGOV PHUM PREL SA
SUBJECT: DHAHRAN DIGEST 8
Classified By: Consul General John Kincannon for reasons
1.4 (b) and (d).
1. (U) This cable is a continuation of a regular series of
updates from the Eastern Province (EP) designed to capture
some of the EP's local color and items of USG interest that
are not necessarily appropriate for a topical cable.
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PRINCE MOHAMMED BIN FAHD ON HIS WAY OUT?
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2. (C) Consulate staff have heard increasingly vocal
grumbling about Prince Mohammed bin Fahd (MbF), the Governor
of the Eastern Province over the last few months. EP
merchant families are unsatisfied with his performance. He
is seen as corrupt and regularly asks for money during
meetings for his own pet projects, including the newly
established University in the EP that bears his name. In the
Eastern Province, many of MbF's interlocutors are busy
business people. They are constantly frustrated with MbF
because, as they say, time is money and the Prince is
consistently late for his scheduled meetings, arrives
unprepared, and displays an obvious disinterest in his
governmental duties. He reportedly told one senior
businessman that he is tired of his gubernatorial
responsibilities and would rather focus on his private
business interests. There are rumors afoot that there will
be a government reshuffle in February and some businessmen
are telling us that they hear that MbF is going to find
himself without a job. Names in the rumor mill as possible
successor governors include al-Gassim's Faisal bin Bandar and
former deputy governor of the EP, Saud bin Nayef. One
prominent businessman close to MbF, however, thinks there
will be no change. In his opinion, Nayef will never allow
him to quit and never allow King Abdullah to fire him.
(Note: MbF is married to a daughter of Prince Nayef. End
Note)
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ARAMCO VP TO CG: $40-$50 PER BARREL IS OUR EXPECTATION
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3. (C) On three separate occasions Mustafa al-Jalali, VP of
Governmental Affairs at Aramco, has told the CG that Aramco
sees oil prices settling down into the mid-40's. Jalali is
one of the company' key "messengers" and when he has a
message to convey, he generally repeats it several times to
make sure the message is getting through. He has repeated
this to us on a couple of occasions, however, we do not
interpret this as actual Aramco thinking, but rather what
Aramco wants us to think Aramco is thinking.
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LOVE IS IN THE AIR: MASS WEDDINGS IN QATEEF
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4. (C) PolOff and PAO attended a mass wedding early last
month in Qateef. Generally, 6-30 couples can get married at
the same time. These events are organized by different
charitable organizations for young men who would not
otherwise be able to afford the costs of a wedding reception.
In Qateef, it is customary to hang large posters advertising
your wedding around the city so anyone who knows you and has
an inclination to attend will know about the ceremony. This
can lead to very costly receptions as the cost of enough goat
and lamb for a few thousand people is not cheap. With the
advent of mass weddings local men contribute a few thousand
riyals and have the cost of the hall, the advertising, and
the food taken care of by the charitable society sponsoring
the event. There are also religious singers that come to the
ceremony that generally cost money but perform at these mass
weddings for free. The ladies have their own separate party
that is held on the same night in a different location. Five
years ago the SAG lifted their informal restriction
prohibiting mass weddings in Qateef, allowing the Shia to
begin organizing them as they have historically. In the past
five years these functions have grown in size and popularity.
One contact tells us that last year there were over 300 men
who chose to get married in mass wedding ceremonies.
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UPCOMING CONTROVERSIAL FILM ABOUT SAUDI WOMEN
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5. (C) Prince al-Waleed bin Talal will meet with film
director Haifa al-Mansour to discuss creating a film about
women in Saudi Arabia. He has told her that he wants the
film to be controversial and wants her to take a leave of
absence from her day job at Aramco to fully focus on this
project. They will discuss the details of the film and begin
to hammer out a contract this week in Riyadh. Haifa
al-Mansour wrote, directed and produced one documentary about
women in Saudi Arabia called "Women Without Shadows" and she
was also the associate producer for the first Saudi motion
picture that was just released throughout the Middle East-
"Kayf Al Hal?" (Note: There are no movie theaters in Saudi
Arabia so the creation of a Saudi film industry in itself is
a controversial and recent phenomenon. End Note) They are
also trying to negotiate a contract based on a book called,
"The Belt" about a small village that lost much of its
identity when it was incorporated into the Kingdom and had to
take on more Nejdi traditions, a theme in al-Mansour's
previous film work.
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ARAMCO LOOSING ITS LUSTER AMONG RECENT COLLEGE GRADS?
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6. (C) Post has been hearing from many of our contacts that
Aramco is no longer a dream company to work for. In a
recent meeting the CG had with senior Lebanese expatriates
working in the oil and gas industry. They compared Aramco to
Mexico's PEMEX and described Aramco as an increasingly
bloated job factory that is being made to create unnecessary
jobs to boost employment opportunities. In the view of these
expats, the best and the brightest Saudis no longer want to
work at Aramco because advancement is now increasingly more
about who you know or your tribal affiliation rather than
what you can do. Many of our Aramco Shia contacts tell us
that the company was much more of a meritocracy under
American management. Although both Aramco and local
contractors would love to hire more Saudi petroleum
engineers, Saudis typically prefer to study mechanical,
civil, or electrical engineering because it gives them more
employment choices. If they study petroleum engineering,
they are for the most part stuck working for Aramco. (Note:
Last year the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals-
KFUPM graduated only 27 petroleum engineers, which is a very
small number in relation to the size of the oil industry in
KSA. End Note) We are told by our contacts that they have
much more respect for the petroleum engineering training at
Sultan Qaboos University in Oman which reportedly graduates
more and better petroleum engineers despite having an oil
industry a fraction the size of Saudi Arabia's.
APPROVED: KINCANNON
OBERWETTER