Working & Living in Saudi Arabia

Since a few of you have asked about it, I thought I'd share my experiences in Saudi with you.

I'll close with some trivia about the place too.

Enjoy & feel free to ask me stuff....

I'm a Health/Safety/Security/Environment Superintendent on a jointly-owned refinery project for Saudi Aramco & Exxon Mobil. Sounds impressive but I actually just do lots of paperwork & tell people "Hey...stop that!" if they look like they're about to hurt themselves.

Big project...$2.8 billion US with 5300 guys in the construction force; mostly from the Philippines, India, Pakistan & Bangladesh with Egyptians & Syrians tossed in for good measure.

Most management -including me- are Americans, Brits, South Africans and Australians.

Here's a link about the plant & immediate vicinity; including Yanbu (where we Western Expatriates live):

http://www.samref.com.sa/About-Samref/About-Yanbu.aspx

Once completed early next year it will produce 400 barrels of clean (low sulfur) diesel & gas per day & will be kept in-country. (Not exported)

(Yes...gas is cheap here. 60 cents/gallon or so. Nowhere close to the 12 cents it costs in Venezuela, but still kinda fun to fill up my company-provided Chevy Tahoe for less than $20 again...) Driving is like DeathRace 2000. With the occasional camels blocking traffic. Sometimes makin' sweet camel love in the middle of the road. You get used to it...

Very dry & very warm here already; typically in the upper 90's during the day. (The winter hits a bone-chilling 75!) This is only March. By next month and through November it will be 120 degrees easily.

Most Saudis are pretty cool, but you really don't encounter them much. They seldom work unless they own the business. They import their labor to do things they don't want to.

Security is very tight; both at the plant & at our villas on the Red Sea. (Armed to the teeth Saudi National Guard) The biggest adjustment I had to make was the 2 distinct entrances in restaurants; one for men, one for women & families. Same thing in the checkout lines at the grocery store; which actually carries quite a bit of American products. (Just no booze or pork products, obviously.)

We are free to fly to Dubai, Bahrain, or Abu Dhabi for a $50 coach ticket & drink all we want but that's kinda hard since we work 6 days/week...

And now...some general trivia...

My name written in Arabic is: بنيامين توماس كولير (read, of course, right to left)

Saudi Arabia -the country- has only existed since the 1930's.

It is the 14th largest country on earth.

It was established from uniting hundreds of warring tribes by the House of Saud; still in power today.

The abaya -the head-to-toe covering women wear in public- is NOT based on Sharia (Islamic) law, but tribal custom. It started off as a way to literally hide tribal women from other tribes; who sought to kidnap them as wives.

The keffiyeh (or the headdress) worn by Arabian menfolk comes in several colors; solid white or red/white patterns the most popular. The colors themselves mean nothing; it's a fashion thing. It does NOT denote royalty, working class, terrorist, etc.

There are 5 "calls to prayer" daily. All shops must close. Those that don't are fined. They literally close & lock the doors so if you're inside shopping, you just take your time & continue. Non-Muslims don't have to pray of course...

Women cannot drive or have drivers licenses.

Women are not allowed in public without a male family member escorting them.

Arabic men's names can be EXTREMELY long. Unlike our first, middle, last names format, theirs looks like this: given name, father's name,.grandfather's name, great grandfather's name, & so on. It includes the word "ibn" meaning "son of___" between each name.

Tourist visas are rarely -if ever- granted. (And why would you WANT to anyway?) Only pilgrims to Mecca (the annual Haj), work visas, & business visas are currently granted to non-diplomats.

The City of Jeddah (where we fly out of for our trips home) is said to hold the tomb of Eve. (Yes. THAT Eve.)

All of you are familiar with at least ONE Arabic word: Sahara. (means desert, of course. So...yeah...you've been saying, "The Desert desert" for all these years...)

Thanks to oil revenue, all citizens enjoy free healthcare, free public schools, and there is no income tax.

It spends 25% of it's annual budget on education.

It has NO natural lakes or rivers, but several ocean beaches.

75 % of it's population is younger than 35 years old.

50 % of government employees are women.

Female government employees are given 2 years paid maternal leave.

King Khaled Airport in the capital city of Riyadh is the world's largest.

21% of it's population are expats. (like me)

Well...THAT was fun....

Feel free to ask any specific questions if you'd like. I kinda enjoy sharing my experiences with folks. (Must be the heat...)

Thanks for the info.....this is exactly why I come to this forum. I had a friend who is a civil engineer who worked two years in Saudi, and he felt pretty much restricted on what he could do. He also at that time.....the late 70s ...... he felt that the Saudis did not like Americans. He made about double the wages he made in the states, and said the golf courses at that time were basically all on sand except the greens.

How do you handle income tax? How long do you have to be working out of the country not to have to pay American income tax?

Indeed interesting! Thanks! Why can't women drive? Are they allowed to beat woman and are they considered owned by their husbands? Can they have many wives?

No worries...glad you enjoyed!

I'm pretty much out of that end of the business but I can find out. I would tend to side with the latter conclusion. You can still see bedoin tents on the desert roads between the refinery & our villas, but the idea of driving is still pretty new to these people. Accordingly, they drive massive vehicle -SUV's, and Chevy's from the 70's that are guaranteed to be gas hogs- so I would tend to go with they need what reserves they have to power themselves.

There's even been a push lately -in the entire Middle East-for renewable energy (wind/solar) to reduce carbon emmisions & free up the oil for refinery operations.

ZVUGKTUBM wrote:Very interesting read, Viking. Thanks for sharing it.

I read a book last year that was written in 2006 by petroleum expert Matt Simmons, titled Twilight in the Desert . Simmons studied several years of Saudi Aramco production data and came to the conclusion that Saudi oil production had peaked and was about to decline.

Other writers I have read have stated that demand for petroleum is growing by leaps and bounds inside Saudi Arabia, and as they use more oil themselves, there is less to sell to buyers to support all of the freebies the Saudi people get.

Glad you enjoyed...cheers!

It's very restricted indeed. I've made peace with it though...it's just a very well paying Twilight Zone, really.

I can understand the hostility your friend encountered in the 70's. There's still an undercurrent of that directed towards Americans here, but I just tell them I'm South African if they ask and suddenly I'm a long-lost friend.

(Me being the devious sort, I adopt a Larry the Cable Guy accent when I tell them I'm from Capetown. They don't know the difference...)

The pay is insane. I will do $350k or so this year over here; far more than I did in the US. They HAVE to pay that well or they'd never find anyone to come over here & deal with the heat, flies, no nightlife, or bacon. There HAS been a shift from Western expats to guys from Asia & other countries in the Mid East, but I'll deal with that when the time comes.

I'm still trying to decipher the IRS rules for expat income. I'll just hire a CPA that's accustomed to dealing with expats & let them deal with it, but my first $95,100 of income earned here isn't taxed. The Saudis don't withdraw anything from my paycheck, so I'll have a pretty substantial bill come tax-time. But to answer your question, I'd have to be here for 330 days out of 365 to receive any sort of tax relief. I won't qualify for that as I rotate home every 8 weeks or so for a 2 week bacon & beer fest, but I'll still come out ahead...

2seaoat wrote:Thanks for the info.....this is exactly why I come to this forum. I had a friend who is a civil engineer who worked two years in Saudi, and he felt pretty much restricted on what he could do. He also at that time.....the late 70s ...... he felt that the Saudis did not like Americans. He made about double the wages he made in the states, and said the golf courses at that time were basically all on sand except the greens.

How do you handle income tax? How long do you have to be working out of the country not to have to pay American income tax?

Hey thanks, glad you enjoyed!

The driving prohibition -like most questions of gender-related issues- is based on the Qur'an (or Koran) If it's not specifically addressed, the Imams (priests) generally err on the side of caution and prohibit it. (So...since driving wasn't an issue back when the Koran was written, they just prohibit it & move on.)

Among the reasons they forbid it is she would have to remove her veil (which is forbidden in public anyway) when driving.

In general, women are considered 2nd class citizens here. So -in effect- yes, I guess you could consider them property or owned by their husbands.

I hate to sound crude, but -from a Saudi perspective- the women are for breeding, looking after the family & home, and that's about it. They can't even leave the country without their husband or father's permission & they still have to be escorted.

Among other things:

Women need their guardian's permission for: marriage and divorce, education; employment; opening a bank account; elective surgery, etc.

They won't even have the right to vote or hold public office until 2015.

As far as being 'allowed' to beat their women, domestic violence is a problem here they say, but it is generally forbidden.

Yes, they can have up to 4 wives as long as they have the means to support them AND 'treats them equally'. (A wife IS allowed to divorce her husband -however- if she has a problem with him marrying another woman or 2. Whether it's granted or not, is another question...)

On that note, there is NO defined law here. If you go to court, your punishment is whatever the judge SAYS it is.

So we kinda behave ourselves over here...

For more info, this is a good source on Saudi Arabian women:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia

Dreamsglore wrote:Indeed interesting! Thanks! Why can't women drive? Are they allowed to beat woman and are they considered owned by their husbands? Can they have many wives?

Very interesting reading. I had a pharmacist friend who worked there in the late 70's. He did not seem to enjoy it. He never talked about the people or the culture, only about the different drug names he had to learn.

Thank you!

No...it's not a very pleasant place to be, that's for sure...

The funny thing about the pharmacies over here is you don't need a prescription for practically anything. You just walk into a pharmacy & tell the clerk (usually not even a pharmacist present) what you want & they ring it up.

BirdyBack wrote:Very interesting reading. I had a pharmacist friend who worked there in the late 70's. He did not seem to enjoy it. He never talked about the people or the culture, only about the different drug names he had to learn.

Thank you for educating us 'heathens' here in good ole USA, it is very enlightening to say the least. I had a very good friend who also worked for AramCo in country for over eight years. He described the living conditions for the expats as he and his wife lived in an 'American (western)' compound that isolated them from the general Saudi population. As he described it, in order to have some alcohol they would brew their own beer or ferment their own wine, otherwise, it was not available. Do you live in a similar circumstance within a compound? The money is definitely good but it is a sacrifice for sure.

No worries...glad you enjoyed!

He's right...the expatriate communities are isolated from the general population. Whether for our protection or theirs, who knows?

It is indeed possible to obtain alcohol here -or like your friends- brew your own. As a matter of fact, the previous tenant of my villa did that but it didn't go too well. At some point his still exploded (not sure what he was brewing) and I can still see the damage it caused to the carpet & walls.

I'm OK doing without, to be honest. The penalty if you're caught (being deported, refused entry ever again) is just TOO severe for the kind of money you make over here...no WAY am I risking that! Only a few more years of working in the (other) Gulf & I'll pickle my liver where it's legal...

knothead wrote:Thank you for educating us 'heathens' here in good ole USA, it is very enlightening to say the least. I had a very good friend who also worked for AramCo in country for over eight years. He described the living conditions for the expats as he and his wife lived in an 'American (western)' compound that isolated them from the general Saudi population. As he described it, in order to have some alcohol they would brew their own beer or ferment their own wine, otherwise, it was not available. Do you live in a similar circumstance within a compound? The money is definitely good but it is a sacrifice for sure.

How I manage to do so with a straight face is probably even MORE twisted...

Bob wrote:

The Viking wrote:

(Me being the devious sort, I adopt a Larry the Cable Guy accent when I tell them I'm from Capetown. They don't know the difference...)

I'm so glad you posted!

Sounds like much of what my Dad used to tell me about Libya where he did consulting work for the oil refineries.

One story he told was of an American family who lived in a compound and had 2 sons in Swiss schools. One Christmas the boys came "home" and Quadaffi happened to walk by their home where he spotted a Christmas tree.

Quadaffi actually knocked on the door asking to see the tree.....fine. BUT, refused to allow the boys to return to Switzerland before they had read and been quizzed on the Koran.

My Dad also had a greater fear of being caught with alcohol..maybe Libya's different? I got the impression he'd be beheaded, but then, that could have just been my Dad.

Also interested in your expat status. Have you formally filed for expat?
Something I've explored for years.

When my Daughters and I traveled to some of the Countries (not Saudi) we found it unbearable to go out without a male escort. They treat women shamefully, especially tourists. Hadn't thought about trying to pull off the S. African cable guy thing......good one!

Thanks again, for posting!

Not too sure about Libya, but -with a few notable exceptions- all Muslim countries take a hard line against booze and most other forms of fun.

No; haven't gone the complete expat route yet. I won't do that until I retire & head to the Caribbean.

I don't really see many expat western women out & about by themselves. Western women can't drive here either, so everywhere they go (outside the compound) they have their husbands/dads with them...

Thanks & glad you enjoy!

stormwatch89 wrote:I'm so glad you posted!

Sounds like much of what my Dad used to tell me about Libya where he did consulting work for the oil refineries.

One story he told was of an American family who lived in a compound and had 2 sons in Swiss schools. One Christmas the boys came "home" and Quadaffi happened to walk by their home where he spotted a Christmas tree.

Quadaffi actually knocked on the door asking to see the tree.....fine. BUT, refused to allow the boys to return to Switzerland before they had read and been quizzed on the Koran.

My Dad also had a greater fear of being caught with alcohol..maybe Libya's different? I got the impression he'd be beheaded, but then, that could have just been my Dad.

Also interested in your expat status. Have you formally filed for expat?
Something I've explored for years.

When my Daughters and I traveled to some of the Countries (not Saudi) we found it unbearable to go out without a male escort. They treat women shamefully, especially tourists. Hadn't thought about trying to pull off the S. African cable guy thing......good one!

Thanks again, for posting!

So glad you posted and I will thank you even though there is a troll casting negs my way for no reason!

Gotta love it!

Thank you, troll, for not disappointing me.

Could I suggest you get a life or better target? I am nothing.