ABSTRACT
The Middle East can be defined in a number of quite different ways, though, for the international oil industry, the area is perceived to be that occupied by the oil-producing states surrounding the Arabian–Persian Gulf. Such a definition would omit those countries of North Africa, particularly Algeria and Libya, which are relatively large producers of crude oil and natural gas, which generally act in concert with the Middle East oil states in oil affairs through the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and through the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, and which have close political ties with the majority of the Middle-Eastern states. The omission of the North African oil exporters from the Middle East does have the great advantage that it enables the Gulf area to stand out clearly as a unique geographical concentration of hydrocarbon resources (Fisher 1963:232) and for this reason may be justified. The main concern of this study will be with the oil industries of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain. Other areas of the Middle East are bound to the main oil producers physically by the pattern of pipelines, through which a proportion of crude oil and natural gas is exported, and by less tangible but equally important economic links made possible by the special financial strengths of the oil states. Pipelines carrying oil exported from the Gulf cross Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey and Israel, giving each an immediate interest in the oil industry of the Middle East which will bring them into the scope of this study from time to time.
