SHIFTING GEARS IN SAUDI ARABIA131al- Hasa, the same area in which American prospectors found oil in the
1930s. At the age of eight, he started English school at Aramco’s Dhah-
ran camp and, by the age of twelve, in 1947, young Ali landed his first
job in the oil sector, as an Aramco office boy. By 1995, Naimi had clawed
his way to the pinnacle of the Saudi energy bureaucracy, becoming min-
ister of petroleum and minerals. The energetic oil minister soon became
the most internationally recognizable Saudi, a man with a penchant for
forcing interlocutors to join him for a vigorous hike, during which he
would provide his thoughts. During OPEC meetings, Naimi did the
same thing with the international press, holding court with a coterie of
reporters he persuaded to wake early and join him for a jog around
3,4003,6003,8004,0004,2004,4004,6004,8002011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016kWh per personFIGURE 8.2 Per capita consumption of electricity in the Saudi residential sector.
The Saudi residential sector also saw a small decline in per capita consumption in 2016.
Source: Electricity and Cogeneration Regulatory Authority, “Electricity
and Cogeneration Regulatory Authority (ECRA) Data and Statistics,” regulatory
r e p o r t ( R i y a d h : E C R A , 2 0 1 7 ) , h t t p : / / w w w. e c r a. g o v. s a / e n - u s / D a t a A n d S t a t i s t i c s
/ N a t i o n a l R e c o r d / H i s t o r i c a l D a t a / P a g e s / H o m e. a s p x.