Dhahran
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Template:Infobox City Dhahran (Arabic الظهران aẓ-Ẓahrān) is a city in Saudi Arabia located in the country's Eastern Province not far from the Persian Gulf. It is a short distance south of the larger port city of Dammam, also the province capital.
Dhahran is, technically speaking, a fenced-in company compound, and only Saudi Aramco employees and their dependents may live inside. Dhahran is admired throughout the area as one of the most diverse, established and city-like compounds. However, because the town's name is also used for the international airport (DHA) and US consulate, both located outside the Saudi Aramco compound, "Dhahran" is often used for convenience to refer to the larger metropolitan area that includes Khobar, Dammam, and many private residential compounds, all of which have grown together into a single megalopolis of over 1 million inhabitants, of whom 97,446 (2004 census) live in the municipality of Dhahran.
Dhahran proper (Aramco code: DH) is one of three original expatriate oil company compounds or "districts" in the east of the country (now four), which also include Ras Tanura (the refinery and port), and Abqaiq (also Buqayq) - and more recently Udhailiyah. Dhahran was the first of the group, founded in the late 1930's, and is still the largest, with 11,300 residents, including approximately 6,200 North Americans. The town consists of two main divisions: Dhahran "main camp" (the oldest section) and Dhahran Hills. Among Aramcons, "Dhahran Hills" is sometimes used to refer to any or all Saudi Aramco compounds rather than just one section of the Dhahran compound.
Dhahran is a major administrative center for the Saudi oil industry. Large oil reserves were first identified in the Dhahran area in 1931, and in 1935 Standard Oil of California (now Chevron) drilled the first commercially viable oil well. Standard Oil later established a subsidiary in Saudi Arabia called the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO), the forerunner to the modern Saudi Aramco (now fully owned by the Saudi government).
All that been said, this is an American expat's point of veiw of Dhahran and there were a massive English, Austrailian and European contingent in Dhahran/Al Khobar that worked for British Aerospace. The main roll of BAE (British Aroespace) was to support the Arabian Air force infastructure. Like Aramco, there were and still are many compounds which accommodated expatriates and their families. Al Rhowda, Al Dana, Al Nada, Seaview, Rezayat, Al Gosabi, Riyadh A, B and C are to name but a few. Dhahran Academy was the international school which taught over 5000 pupils.
In the first Gulf War, a significant number of United States military personnel were stationed at and around the long-standing U.S. airbase at Dhahran airport as well as elements of the British Royal Air Force. Some of these personnel remained after the conclusion of the war, operating under Army Forces Central Command – Saudi Arabia (ARCENT-SA). On June 25, 1996, 19 U.S. servicemen died in a bombing at Khobar Towers, a U.S. military complex near Dhahran which eventually led to the departure of US forces in 2003, after an agreement was reached on April 29 between the United States and Saudi Arabia, one day before major combat operations were declared over in Iraq. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced that U.S. military operations were moved from Prince Sultan air base to Qatar's Al Udeid Air Base. A small number of U.S. troops stayed in the kingdom to train Saudi forces and participate in joint exercises. (See: Khobar Towers bombing).
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Geography and geology
Dhahran is a short distance west of downtown Khobar, the closest Saudi Arab town to Dhahran and its traditional shopping center, and about 15 km south of Dammam, both older Saudi port cities on the Persian Gulf. Looking farther afield, Dhahran is northeast of Abqaiq, also a Saudi Aramco compound, and southeast of Qatif (a traditional Shi'ite oasis town) and, further north, Ras Tanura, Saudi Aramco's main oil port. The island nation of Bahrain is also within easy driving distance to the east (about 20 miles) across a causeway from Khobar.
The patch of desert on which the original oil company compound was built is hilly/rocky, and most of the earliest productive oil wells in the country were drilled in the area, such as Dammam Well #7: "Prosperity Well," the first commercially viable oil well in Saudi Arabia in the 1930s. This later led to the selection of two barren nearby hills as the place for Aramco to construct its headquarters.[1]
The Dhahran-Dammam area is one of two regions, the other being Jeddah, that were selected as potential sites to build the first Saudi nuclear reactor.[2]
Economy
Image:Dhahran-industrial.jpgSaudi Aramco, the national oil company with its headquarters in Dhahran. Saudi Aramco, is considered by many measures to be the largest oil company in the world with the largest oil reserves in the world, and it produces more oil per day than any other country or company in the world. Most of the oil is exported, since local Saudi needs require only a tiny percentage of the total production. Saudi Aramco is also the largest oil exporter in the world. (See: Saudi Aramco)
Sixty-five years on, Dhahran is still Saudi Aramco's worldwide headquarters and the center of the company's finance, exploration, engineering, drilling services, medical services, materials supply and other company organisations. Company-wide, Saudi Aramco has a very large multi-national workforce, totaling over 56,000 mainly Saudi employees scattered around the country, including approximately 9,000 expatriates from around the world. Saudi Aramco is the only oil company with operations in Dhahran, and everyone who lives in the compound is employed by the same company. Template:Clear
Demographics
Image:DhCarnival.jpgAramco has several self-contained communities to house its employees in the Eastern Province. Dhahran is the largest community, with a total population of about 11,300, including approximately 6,200 Americans (employees, spouses and children). The total population of the Dhahran municipality is 97,446 (2004 census).
Image:Hills2.jpg Traditionally, the "senior staff" inhabitants of Dhahran were mainly US employees of Saudi Aramco but included minorities of other Western nationalities, non-Saudi Arab nationalities (e.g. Lebanese, Palestinians, Egyptians), and other non-Western nationalities (e.g. Indians, Pakistanis, and Filipinos). Due to several decades of "Saudi-ization" by the now 100% Saudi-controlled company, many upper-level Saudi famlies have also come to live on the compound, which culturally and linguistically is still predominantly American (i.e. Saudi and Islamic laws are applied to a lesser extent there than outside of the compound, and English is the common language of communication and education).
The community is also unusual demographically in that all citizens of Dhahran are either employees of (Saudi) Aramco or their dependents; several age demographics are missing - 15-25-year olds (Dhahran provides no high school or university for dependents' children so they must leave for schools elsewhere) and persons aged 65+ (retirees leave the company); and economically, everyone is either an employee of higher ("senior staff") rank within the company or a dependent (i.e. no unemployed, no poor, no manual laborers).
After 65+ years of community life, Dhahran - and the other three Saudi Aramco compounds - have spawned several generations of "Aramcons", most of whom now reside in their country of origin rather than Saudi Arabia. Community ties remain strong years after employees have left, however, and "Aramco Reunions" are held by ex-Aramcons in various locations in the US every two years. In addition, the children of Saudi Aramco employees, "Aramco brats", have developed their own cultural identity and hold their own biannual reunions.
Government, law, and security
Also see: Saudi Aramco Health Maintenance Organization
Image:Hills.jpgLaws in Dhahran (and the other old Saudi Aramco compounds) are distinct from the rest of Saudi Arabia's, and law enforcement -- in addition to health care and fire protection -- are all internal responsibilities of Saudi Aramco. Thus, some Saudi national laws are not applied in Dhahran. For example, women, forbidden from driving in the rest of the country, can drive freely within the compound and have no special dress code (unlike Saudi women in the rest of the kingdom). And while pork products and alcoholic beverages are prohibited nationwide, for a long time there was a "pork store" as a subsection of the Dhahran employees commissary, where non-Muslim families could buy a rationed amount of pork products (including hog-hair brushes!). Beginning in the 1940's, Aramco even produced a publication on the safe bootleg production of household alcohol. (Selling it to Saudi nationals invited certain expulsion or imprisonment, however.) Other national laws are enforced on the compound. For example, any foreigner that tests positive, during the annual medical checkup, for the AIDS-HIV virus will be deported. Hence, issues relating to public health, safety, or certain moral issues (i.e. adultery, homosexuality) that become too public or involve Muslims, especially Saudi Muslims, are taken extremely seriously and can lead to termination, deportation, or other severe consequenses if the rules are not obeyed. Early in Aramco's history, a special department of Government Relations was formed to mediate between non-Saudi employees within the compound and the Saudi government, in effect, providing a buffer between Western "compound culture" and traditional Saudi culture.
The de facto government of Dhahran consists of some departments of Saudi Aramco that are related, such as Loss Prevention, Industrial Security, Community Services, Fire Protection, etc. Saudi Aramco's Industrial Security Department is the traffic, sercurity, and safety enforcement service. In addition to regular law enforcement forces, it operates K-9; the Special Search Unit. It is notable that the K-9 has been active since terrorist attacks hit other parts of the country.
Saudi Special Emergency Forces' Eastern Province headquarters are located 1km away from the main gate of Dhahran; however, they do not enter the city unless some serious security issue has occurred (which has so far never happened). Beyond a secondary interest in community moral policing, the government is, post 9-11, mainly preoccupied with ensuring the physical safety of expatriate workers.
Although most terrorist incidents in Saudi Arabia (1998 on) have targeted Westerners, no single incident has so far occurred in the Dhahran compound itself, due perhaps to constant vigilance by government and company security. (See: List of terrorist incidents in Saudi Arabia.) During the Six-Day War in June 1967, however, a small-scale riot erupted outside the compound due to anger at perceived US support of Israel, and some rioters (mainly non-Saudi Muslims) managed to gain entrance to the town, inflicting minimal harm (overturned vehicles, broken car windows) but scaring US employees and their families enough that the company saw fit to evacuate most dependents and repatriate them for several months at company expense.
Transportation
Image:On the Dhahran-Al Khobar Highway.jpg Image:Saudi dhahran airport.jpg Image:FahdAP.jpg As center of the nation's oil industry, Dhahran enjoys excellent transportation resources both nationally and internationally.
The nation's excellent highway infrastructure was modernized extensively in the '70s and '80s and connects the Dhahran area with all major urban centers in the Kingdom, including its neighbors Kuwait, Qatar, and via causeway, the nearby island nation of Bahrain. The oil company also built and maintains a Tapline road for its pipeline stations spread along the highway northwest into Jordan. Roads early linked Dhahran with Saudi Aramco's other major compounds Ras Tanura and Abqaiq and with its nearest traditional Saudi community Khobar.
Formerly one of Saudi Arabia's three major international airports, Dhahran Airpot (DHA) lies a short distance east of the compound. Dhahran airport originally consisted of three sections: the old King Fahd Air Terminal for regular passengers, separate facilities for Aramco corporate use (Aramco formerly had its own passenger airplanes offering international air service for employees until the early '60s), and a small US airforce base. Nowadays, the new airport, King Fahd International Airport (DMM), serves the entire metropolitan area: Dhahran, Dammam, and Al Khobar. It also contains a section designated to Aramco Aviation Department, from which all company-run flights operate. The old airport is now called King Abdulaziz Airbase, a major Royal Saudi Air Force base. The American airforce still maintains a presence there.
King Abdulaziz Seaport in Dammam, a major international goods port, lies about 15 km northeast of Dhahran. The company's petroleum, however, is handled by the port of Ras Tanura, a massive oil-refining and storage center 50 km north of Dhahran. Very little passenger transport occurs via the Gulf, however. In that sector, air and highway travel dominate.
Although rail service in Saudi Arabia plays a much more minor role today than 50 years ago, an industrial railroad with a station adjacent to Dhahran still exists, linking it to the capital Riyadh.
Within the company itself, Saudi Aramco runs free bus service for its employees, both within the compound, between the Dhahran Inter-District Bus Station and each of the three other Aramco districts, and shopping bus service into Khobar. Taxi service is also available within the compound. There are basically no traffic jams in Dhahran even in rush hours (with the exception of the security gates and around the core area). However, all traffic lights in Dhahran are computer-controlled to maximize the traffic flow.
Dhahran's main office buildings, including the Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center (EXPEC), Exploration Computer Center (ECC), and the Engineering Building, are connected by an underground tunnel network to help employees avoid exposure to the extremes of the Saudi climate.
Communications
Image:HamiltonHouse.jpg The Information Technology Department of Saudi Aramco administrates all communication in Dhahran. All telecom services are provided for free, as well as home internet (except ADSL). The ITD does not supervise mobile communications, mobile services are provided by STC.
Education
Within the compound itself, Saudi Aramco operates two schools, the Dhahran Hills School (Elementary, K-5) and the Dhahran Middle School (6-9). The company has never provided a high school level, however, compelling employees to send dependent students out of country after the 9th grade for secondary school and college. (A graduation ceremony is attached to this rite of passage, and Aramco brats identify themselves thereafter as the "Class of 1990", for example.)
Dhahran schools employ an American-based curriculum in teaching whatever the nationality of the pupil. All children of Saudi Aramco employees are allowed to attend, with the noted exception of the children of Saudi employees, who are required to attend alternative Saudi-curriculum schools. Until 1980, Saudi employees living on camp were allowed to register their children in the company school, after which time a company policy was instituted to forbid it.
Beyond the compound, the greater Dhahran area is home to the King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals, a national technical institution built just outside the compound's original perimeter fence, and the Aramco Training Center (ATC), which includes the campus of the selective College Preparatory Center for promising Saudi secondary students preparing for study abroad.
Media
Newspapers and magazines
All papers published locally are either owned by Saudi Aramco or special community interest groups (SIGs), and they are all free. The main weekly is the Arabian Sun newspaper. Most Saudi Aramco-owned papers and magazines are available online at Aramco's official website (anyone may request a hard-copy subscription free of charge). The papers that are owned by SIGs are available online only through Saudi Aramco's internal network.
The company's highly regarded Aramco World magazine of Middle Eastern and Islamic topics can be subscribed to in the United States for about $3. (Website: http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com)
Television
Aramco TV (Dhahran TV, and named Channel 3 later) was the first TV channel in the Persian Gulf area and the second in the Middle East. Dhahran TV started broadcasting on September 16, 1957. Although originally in English, it had later started to broadcast in Arabic, but at the same time, viewers could listen to the English version of the TV programs through Aramco radio simultaneously. In 1970, it had become a commercial free, all-English channel after the Saudi channel started broadcasting in 1966. Up until the first Persian Gulf War Channel 3 was the only English language television station readily available and it was sometimes the object of humor for its airing of dated and censored entertainment programming, and a bland nightly news broadcast.
Many expat brats that grew up in Dhahran in the 1980s and 1990s will recall some quaint memories of the channel, i.e. the onscreen caligrophy that appeared to announce the prayer times, or the fact that "Children's Shows" were at least a couple years old and could not show any kissing between men and women. Most Dhahran residents used their television set to watch VHS tapes or play video games. The highlight of Channel 3 was that it did air well done documentaries on Middle Eastern history, culture, cuisine and environment, and during the first Gulf War it aired a documentary on how to properly use gas masks, after some accidental deaths occurred.
The death of Channel 3 was that Dhahran residents started to get other choices for English langaguge entertainment and news television. In the early 1990s the first Persian Gulf War gave Dhahran residents the ability to pick up the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. By the late 1990s, satellite television services were becoming more affordable and offering a wider selection of commercial news and entertainment programming that was less censored and more contemporary. The result was that in 1998 Saudi Aramco shut down the channel.
Sites of interest
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- Ar Rabiyah Compound
- Dhahran Hills Park
- Half-Moon Bay (outside the compound)
- Dhahran Rolling Hills Golf Course
- Saudi Aramco Oil Exhibit
- The Heritage Gallery
- Al-Fayrouz Theater
- Munira Ashgar's Museum
- U.S. Consulate General (outside the compound)
- King's Road Theater
- Hamilton Guest House
- Dhahran Hobby Farm
- King's Road Library
- EXPEC Building (in the Admin Area)
- The Almujamma (Blue) Mosque
- Engineering Complex (Office Buildings and Library)
- King's Road Recreation Area
- Steinecke Hall
- King's Road Ball Field
- Dhahran Dining Hall
- Tower Building
- Dhahran Rolling Hills Putting Area
- Dolly Parton
- Dhahran International Hotel (outside the compound - known for being the residence of foreign reporters during the Gulf War (Operation Desert Shield in 1990 and Operation Desert Storm in 1991), and the 1998 Operation Desert Fox. Remainings of a launched Patriot Missile are displayed in the main hall).
More information
The following text has been adapted from Aramco's relocation and orientation guide for new employees.
The community of Dhahran is composed of two sections: Dhahran main camp and Dhahran Hills. These two sections are separated by Dhahran's 27-hole Rolling Hills golf course and club house. The term 'camp' has stuck with Dhahran and the other communities, since its early development in the 1930s and 1940s. However, in reality, Dhahran is a community with tree-lined streets, stone houses and grass lawns.
Dhahran main camp is located at the site of the original Dhahran camp and contains the administration complex, health center, dental clinic, dining hall, library and theatre. The community's Al Mujamma service center(seen in the image) is a mall-type complex which houses the mail center, barber shop, travel office, photo shop, laundry, dry cleaners, housing office, community bulletin boards and ticket office for community events. The supermarket and florist are adjacent to Al Mujamma, as is the bank. The Dhahran dining hall is also on the main camp, not far from Al Mujamma.
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There are two recreation complexes on the main camp. One complex is next to the middle school and includes a youth center, swimming pool, gym, tennis courts, squash courts and games fields. The other is situated near the community library. Included in this complex is the bowling alley, movie theatre, games room and dance hall.
Most homes in the main camp are constructed of brick or fieldstone, and many have undergone recent modernisation. There are also some newer, modular homes in this area. The gardens and landscaped areas of these homes are surprisingly green with large shade trees and flowering bougainvillea and oleanders.
Dhahran Hills, which is mostly residential, is located about 2 miles west of Dhahran main camp, just beyond the community's golf course. Most houses in the hills were constructed in the early 80s. The Dhahran Hills school, for kids aged 5-10, is located in the hills. Adjacent to the school is a large community recreation center similar to the ones in the main camp.
Dhahran also has a hobby farm (horse stables), bicycle and jogging paths, and a rugby field.
Dhahran's marina and adjoining beach facility is at Half Moon Bay, a small inlet of the Persian Gulf. It is 40 minutes from the community of Dhahran. Sailing, fishing and water-skiing facilities are available.
Al-Munirah is a compound in Dhahran but outside the main camp and the Hills, it is designated for junior staff (as Dhahran Hills and the Main Camp are resided by senior staff and their families). Ar-Rabiyah, a compound that is "attached" to Dhahran, is exclusively reserved for managers and executive vice presidents and their families. Ar-Rabiyah is also considered one of the classiest compounds in the whole region, even to being referred to as the "Golden Ghetto" (Beverly Hills, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, was created by the Amalgamated Oil Company).
Major yearly events
Reflecting the community's historically American cultural ties, the town celebrated special events for the Fourth of July and Christmas, including a nativity pagent on the grounds of the main baseball park, until 2000, when the Saudi-owned company discontinued the celebrations out of Islamic religious and nationalistic considerations.
Dhahran in film and TV
- The West Wing: In one episode, the story plot was picketers outside the Aramco camp of Dhahran.
- CNN: A report about Dhahran was aired.
- In 1998 after the bias-motivated kidnapping and murder of Matthew Shepard, a Wyoming college student, the major American news networks would occasionally mention that the student's parents lived in Dhahran and worked for Aramco.
See also
External links
- Travel guide with photos
- Saudi Aramco World: A 1963 article about Dhahran TV.
- History of Dhahran (1950's)
- General information about Dhahran, useful for first time visitors
- Aramco Services Company site: By clicking the "communities" link, information and photo tour can be found about Dhahran as well as other Aramco communities.
- Satellite Image from TerraServer.com
- Satellite Image from Google Maps