R 150906Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY RIYADH
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 3738
INFO GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
AMEMBASSY PARIS 
AMEMBASSY LONDON 
AMEMBASSY MUSCAT 
AMCONSUL JEDDAH

C O N F I D E N T I A L RIYADH 009085 
 
 
DHAHRAN SENDS 
PARIS FOR WALLER, LONDON FOR TSOU 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/15/2016 
TAGS: ECON EPET KIRF PA PGOV PHUM PREL SA
SUBJECT: DHAHRAN DIGEST 8 
 
Classified By: Consul General John Kincannon for reasons 
1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (U)  This cable is a continuation of a regular series of 
updates from the Eastern Province (EP) designed to capture 
some of the EP's local color and items of USG interest that 
are not necessarily appropriate for a topical cable. 
 
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PRINCE MOHAMMED BIN FAHD ON HIS WAY OUT? 
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¶2. (C) Consulate staff have heard increasingly vocal 
grumbling about Prince Mohammed bin Fahd (MbF), the Governor 
of the Eastern Province over the last few months.  EP 
merchant families are unsatisfied with his performance.  He 
is seen as corrupt and regularly asks for money during 
meetings for his own pet projects, including the newly 
established University in the EP that bears his name.  In the 
Eastern Province, many of MbF's interlocutors are busy 
business people.  They are constantly frustrated with MbF 
because, as they say, time is money and the Prince is 
consistently late for his scheduled meetings, arrives 
unprepared, and displays an obvious disinterest in his 
governmental duties.  He reportedly told one senior 
businessman that he is tired of his gubernatorial 
responsibilities and would rather focus on his private 
business interests.  There are rumors afoot that there will 
be a government reshuffle in February and some businessmen 
are telling us that they hear that MbF is going to find 
himself without a job.  Names in the rumor mill as possible 
successor governors include al-Gassim's Faisal bin Bandar and 
former deputy governor of the EP, Saud bin Nayef.  One 
prominent businessman close to MbF, however, thinks there 
will be no change.  In his opinion, Nayef will never allow 
him to quit and never allow King Abdullah to fire him. 
(Note: MbF is married to a daughter of Prince Nayef. End 
Note) 
 
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ARAMCO VP TO CG: $40-$50 PER BARREL IS OUR EXPECTATION 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶3. (C) On three separate occasions Mustafa al-Jalali, VP of 
Governmental Affairs at Aramco, has told the CG that Aramco 
sees oil prices settling down into the mid-40's.  Jalali is 
one of the company' key "messengers" and when he has a 
message to convey, he generally repeats it several times to 
make sure the message is getting through.  He has repeated 
this to us on a couple of occasions, however, we do not 
interpret this as actual Aramco thinking, but rather what 
Aramco wants us to think Aramco is thinking. 
 
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LOVE IS IN THE AIR: MASS WEDDINGS IN QATEEF 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (C) PolOff and PAO attended a mass wedding early last 
month in Qateef.  Generally, 6-30 couples can get married at 
the same time.  These events are organized by different 
charitable organizations for young men who would not 
otherwise be able to afford the costs of a wedding reception. 
 In Qateef, it is customary to hang large posters advertising 
your wedding around the city so anyone who knows you and has 
an inclination to attend will know about the ceremony.  This 
can lead to very costly receptions as the cost of enough goat 
and lamb for a few thousand people is not cheap.  With the 
advent of mass weddings local men contribute a few thousand 
riyals and have the cost of the hall, the advertising, and 
the food taken care of by the charitable society sponsoring 
the event.  There are also religious singers that come to the 
ceremony that generally cost money but perform at these mass 
weddings for free.  The ladies have their own separate party 
that is held on the same night in a different location.  Five 
years ago the SAG lifted their informal restriction 
prohibiting mass weddings in Qateef, allowing the Shia to 
begin organizing them as they have historically.  In the past 
five years these functions have grown in size and popularity. 
 One contact tells us that last year there were over 300 men 
who chose to get married in mass wedding ceremonies. 
 
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UPCOMING CONTROVERSIAL FILM ABOUT SAUDI WOMEN 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) Prince al-Waleed bin Talal will meet with film 
director Haifa al-Mansour to discuss creating a film about 
women in Saudi Arabia.  He has told her that he wants the 
film to be controversial and wants her to take a leave of 
absence from her day job at Aramco to fully focus on this 
project. They will discuss the details of the film and begin 
to hammer out a contract this week in Riyadh.  Haifa 
al-Mansour wrote, directed and produced one documentary about 
women in Saudi Arabia called "Women Without Shadows" and she 
was also the associate producer for the first Saudi motion 
picture that was just released throughout the Middle East- 
"Kayf Al Hal?" (Note: There are no movie theaters in Saudi 
Arabia so the creation of a Saudi film industry in itself is 
a controversial and recent phenomenon. End Note)  They are 
also trying to negotiate a contract based on a book called, 
"The Belt" about a small village that lost much of its 
identity when it was incorporated into the Kingdom and had to 
take on more Nejdi traditions, a theme in al-Mansour's 
previous film work. 
 
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ARAMCO LOOSING ITS LUSTER AMONG RECENT COLLEGE GRADS? 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶6. (C) Post has been hearing from many of our contacts that 
Aramco is no longer a dream company to work for.  In a 
recent meeting the CG had with senior Lebanese expatriates 
working in the oil and gas industry.  They compared Aramco to 
Mexico's PEMEX and described Aramco as an increasingly 
bloated job factory that is being made to create unnecessary 
jobs to boost employment opportunities.  In the view of these 
expats, the best and the brightest Saudis no longer want to 
work at Aramco because advancement is now increasingly more 
about who you know or your tribal affiliation rather than 
what you can do.  Many of our Aramco Shia contacts tell us 
that the company was much more of a meritocracy under 
American management.  Although both Aramco and local 
contractors would love to hire more Saudi petroleum 
engineers, Saudis typically prefer to study mechanical, 
civil, or electrical engineering because it gives them more 
employment choices.  If they study petroleum engineering, 
they are for the most part stuck working for Aramco. (Note: 
Last year the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals- 
KFUPM graduated only 27 petroleum engineers, which is a very 
small number in relation to the size of the oil industry in 
KSA. End Note)  We are told by our contacts that they have 
much more respect for the petroleum engineering training at 
Sultan Qaboos University in Oman which reportedly graduates 
more and better petroleum engineers despite having an oil 
industry a fraction the size of Saudi Arabia's. 
 
APPROVED: KINCANNON 
 
 
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