1804. FROM ENERGY POVERTY TO ENERGY EXTREMISM- Marc Valeri, Oman: Politics and Society in the Qaboos State (London: Hurst, 2009).
- Figures from Oman’s National Center for Statistics and Information and other sources
cited on Times of Oman graphic published November 18, 2015. See https: //twitter .com
/ C I L _ O m a n / s t a t u s / 6 6 7 2 2 8 4 0 2 6 8 0 7 9 1 0 4 0. - Even the Quran— and orthodox Islam— had not penetrated some of Oman’s iso-
lated mountain reaches, where some villagers did not speak Arabic or know how to
pray in Islamic fashion. By one account I have heard, religious practices in remote
Dhofari communities included animist and other non- Islamic aspects into the
1970s. - That equates to two doctors and fewer than one hospital per 100,000 people. In 2015,
Oman counted 67 hospitals and 217 doctors per 100,000 people; life expectancy
reached 77 years. - Omanis used a tenth of a metric ton/person in 1971 and 7 metric tons/person in 2013.
IEA World Energy Balances, 2015 ed. - Further discoveries came in 1963 and 1964, but since oilfields were so far from the
coast, a 175- mile pipeline had to be built before any could be exported. The first export
came in 1967. Omani oil production grew from 57,000 b/d in 1967 to reach 332,000
b/d by 1970, roughly a third of current Omani oil- production levels. Oman Ministry
of Oil and Gas, “Brief History of the Oil and Gas Sector in Sultanate of Oman,” n.d.,
h t t p : / / w w w. m o g. g o v. o m / P o r t a l s / 1 / p d f / o i l / h i s t o r y - O i l - G a s - e n. p d f. P r o d u c t i o n d a t a
from BP, Statistical Review of World Energy 2015 (London: BP, 2015). - Fred Halliday, Arabia Without Sultans (London: Saqi, 1974), 275.
- Va ler i, Oman.
- Halliday, Arabia Without Sultans, 373– 75.
- Kutschera, “Oman.”
- Jim Krane, City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism (New York: St. Martin’s,
2009), 58– 59. - Major cities in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar began receiving municipal
power in the 1950s. - Christopher M. Davidson, The United Arab Emirates: A Study in Survival (Boulder,
CO: Lynne Rienner, 2005). - Saudi Arabia also cancelled once- crucial fees on religious pilgrims and rescinded sev-
eral other taxes. Kiren Aziz Chaudhry, The Price of Wealth: Economies and Institu-
tions in the Middle East (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997), 143– 44. - OECD and IEA, cited in United Nations Environment Program, “Reforming Energy
Subsidies: Opportunities to Contribute to the Climate Change Agenda,” white paper
(Geneva: UNEP, 2008), 11. - Some hold that Saudi Arabia is a special case: that its low domestic energy prices do
not constitute subsidies because spare production capacity allows it to set or influ-
ence global market prices. I acknowledge these arguments but, in the interest of sim-
plicity, accept the IEA’s characterization of Saudi underpricing as a subsidy. For a
more nuanced argument, see Yousef Alyousef and Paul Stevens, “The Cost of Domes-
tic Energy Prices to Saudi Arabia,” Energy Policy 39 (2011): 6900– 5.