The Oil Drum

My son does not work as an oilfield geologists
or in production of oil in any way. He is in
training, or more correctly testing, of Saudi
operators and electronic maintenance. He
primarily in the northern part of the country
but he often gets sent to other fields to
qualify operators. He is part of the
"Saudiaziation of Aramco" that they have been
trying to do for the last 25 years. As you
probably know Saudi hopes to replace all
Western workers with Saudis. But my son seems
to think this will be impossible because of
Wasta. He says people never get promoted
because of their ability to perform but Wasta
rules everything. Those who get promoted have
Wasta and they get promoted even if they cannot
do squat. Those who do not have Wasta never get
anywhere regardless of how qualified they are.
http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/10507.html

I had to work with him to get him even
interestedin peak oil. But I gave him my copy
of "Twilight in the Desert" and now he asks
questions everywhere he goes. (He said when he
finished the book that seven other people were
already in line to read it.) At any rate the
next time he posts me anything concerning Saudi
oil I will post it.