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WHAT ARE MIDDLE EAST COUNTRIES DOING ABOUT A FUTURE WITHOUT OIL???

SORRY, BUT SATELLITE CONNECTION IN ARABIAN/INDIAN OCEAN WAS NONEXISTENT.  So today, two postings.

Two days ago, I shared some facts about petroleum, and how this resource would run out in less than 50 years.  Notice that President Joe Biden opened up oil trade again with Venezuela.  They only have more oil reserves than any other country, even more than Saudi Arabia.  So, anyway, what are countries of the Arabian Peninsula doing about the inevitability of running out of oil in less than half a century?

The United Arab Emirates is attempting to gain the travel interest of the world by building the biggest of almost everything.  They figure that people would want to visit a country with these attractions.  It seems to be working.

Dubai in particular began with pearls, shifted to oil, and quickly ran out of this resource, so turned to finances and tourism, through having:

  • Ain Dubai, the world's largest Ferris Wheel, which opened last year.  From ground to top, 820 feet.  Each of its 48 carriages can hold 40 people, taking 38 minutes for a complete rotation.
  • Of course by now you know that they have Burj Khalifa, which at 2717 feet is the tallest skyscraper, and still has the biggest shopping mall in terms of certain parameters.
  • The largest picture from, the Dubai Frame, 492 meter high and 305 feet wide.
  • The Dubai Miracle Garden, which earned a Guinness World Record for the largest floral installation, the life-size model of an Emirates A380 Airbus, the plane we flew to Dubai from Bangkok.  Took 200 people to put together 5 million flowers.
  • Has the world's deepest swimming pool for diving called Deep Dive Dubai...196 feet.
  • The longest zipline, Ras Al-Khaimah, 9290 feet, reaching 93 miles/hour.
Oh, this is just the beginning for the UAE.  Just opened and to come are:
  • Dubai Hills Mall with 650 shops with an 18-screen rooftop cinema. 
  • Palm Tower, only 787 feet high, but an infinity pool on the 50th floor, which will also house the second St. Regis Hotel in the city.
  • Dubai Urban Tech District for 4000 jobs in green urban technology, education and training.

    • Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park, which has 1827 megawatts of solar energy, and will go up to 5000 MW by 2030, the largest in the world.  Cost?  $13.6 billion.
    • Dubai Islands, five islands with everything you would want, including a golf course and 80 resorts/hotels.
    • AlJurf, a Riviera-style project between Abu Dhabi and Dubai with 293 ranch-like villas, 100,000 trees, sea turtles and other wildlife, plus hotels and prime waterfront real estate.
    • Uptown Tower, only their 14th tallest tower at 1115 feet.
    • Mohammed bin Rashid Library, seven floors with nine thematic libraries.
    • Natural History Museum to show the 13.8 billion-year journey through time and space, and into the future.
    • Louvre Abu Dhabi Residences, only 400 apartments, but what an address.
    • Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will open in 2025, also designed by Frank Gehry.
    • A lot more.  Read this.
    • Want more?  Read this.
    • Oh, one more.  Saudi Arabia will in a few years build a taller building than Burj Khalifa.  So, Dubai began construction of something even taller, the Dubai Creek Tower, which will be finished in 2025.

    Saudi Arabia has their Vision 2030.

    • A wide-ranging future involving defense, economy, technology and name it.
    • Why?  The government is 75% dependent on oil exports, and it is running out.
    • Wants to become the hub connecting Europe to Africa.
    • One big problem:  The Jamal Khashoggi murder influenced most prime U.S. companies like Google, Ford, JPMorgan Chase, New York Times, Fox Business Network and Huffington Post to back out.  And that's only the USA.  Richard Branson, for example, has also withdrawn.
    • World Wrestling Entertainment will enter, with female performers.
    • American movie theater chains will be welcomed.
    • Music festivals will feature the best.
    • Formula One racing will come.
    • Women's rights will be highlighted.
    • Tourist visas will allow visitors from 49 countries to visit for up to 90 days for a fee of $80, and can be done on arrival.
    • Neom is city being built to incorporate smart technology and tourism at a cost of half a trillion dollars.
    • $200 billion renewable energy projects.
    • Grand Mosque of Mecca for $21.3 billion.
    • And on and on.
    In short, while they keep selling oil to the the world, the Arabian Peninsula is going green, with Egypt just hosting COP 27 and the UAE welcoming COP28 next year.  
    • UAE in particular will cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 31% by 2030. Will invest $163 billion on clean energies by 2050.  This country is also home to the International Renewable Energy Agency, which was inaugurated in Masdar in 2015, and was the first Arab nation to pledge to reach net-zero domestic emissions by 2050, as now have Israel and Turkey.  
    • Saudi Arabia has stopped fighting global warming measures, and spearheads the Middle East Green Initiative to reduce carbon emissions by 60% with $186 billion.  They will take a particularly good look at methane.
    • Qatar will open an 800 MW solar site later this year.
    • Because of so much sun, the Gulf states now have dropped the cost of solar electricity to 1 cent/kWh, even though the average for the world is closer to 5 cents/kWh.
    • Saudi Arabia and the UAE are jumping into green hydrogen. They hope to lead the world in exporting hydrogen by 2030, spearheaded by efforts in Neom. 
    • Will plant 500 billion trees.
    • What's driving these initiatives is the Ukraine War.  Oil prices haves jumped, and Saudi's Armco posted record earnings of $48.4 billion just in the second quarter of this year, a 90% increase from the same period in 2021.
    • For the whole region, renewable investments were below a billion in 2011, and jumped to $6.9 billion in 2021.  
    So is the Arab world ready for their post-oil future?  Read this.
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