Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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V. PLANNED TOWNS AND COMMUNITIES
The process of planned communities in Saudi Arabia constitutes the most profound
exercise by the private (oil) company (Aramco) and the government starting in the late
1940s. Comprehensive, national and urban planning and policy making in the modern,
systematic fashion was yet to be used by the 1970s. These planned communities represent
direct intervention by these entities to cope with rapid urbanization. The process can be
divided into (1) early planned American oil towns, (2) planned Saudi workers communities
in the Eastern Province,(3) planned royal suburbs and communities built by the
government for administrative purposes- an experience which will be discussed in Chapter
4, and (4) new towns built by the government for Industrial purposes.
A. Early Planned American Oil Towns
As oil operations by were resumed following the end of World War Two, more
Americans and other nationals were admitted to Saudi Arabia. Aramco constructed three
major settlements at the major oil operations as "outposts of American civilizations." 38
Dhahran was built anew for Aramco's headquarters and housed the majority of Americans.
It was situated on a hilly site, twenty kilometers east of the Gulf shores to the east. The
second major town, Ras Tannurah, was constructed anew on the Gulf coast where a
complex of oil processing facilities were concentrated, including a major refinery. The first
oil ever loaded onto an oil tanker was in May 1939 with the presence of King Abdul-Aziz.
Abqaiq town was located to serve the great oil field inland. In total, these towns comprised
6,400 Americans including some of whom had families.
Due to the wide cultural gap between the Americans and the predominantly rural and
nomadic Saudi labor force, the towns' plans mirrored the oil company's policy of physical
segregation according to ethnicity. Solon T. Kimball wrote, "Each town section is divided
into five distinctive sections that correspond to internal social divisions or economic
functions....Their internal divisions reflected the bureaucratic structure of an American
corporation, divisions that are sharply accentuated by the coincidence of status levels and
national origins." 39 The rational of maximizing oil operations was mirrored in the physical
and social organization of Aramco's towns forms, with the ultimate goal of speeding "the
flow of oil to an industrial civilization." The oil town core comprised the administrative,
commercial, operational and service areas. It was located next to the industrial systems, a