Eastern Province
Eastern Province's oil fields (12.7M bbl/day) and Aramco headquarters anchor Saudi wealth, with Jubail petrochemicals and $3B King Salman Energy Park diversifying.
Eastern Province contains Saudi Arabia's oil—the Ghawar and other fields that made the kingdom energy superpower, the Dhahran headquarters where Aramco directs the fourth-largest company by revenue. The 2.2 million population of the Dammam metropolitan area reflects decades of petroleum-driven development, the oil capital housing the infrastructure that extracts 12.7 million barrels of oil equivalent daily.
Jubail Industrial City represents the downstream diversification that oil wealth finances—the largest petrochemical complex in Saudi Arabia, joint ventures between Aramco and international partners processing crude into higher-value products. The 2024 carbon capture project, blue hydrogen initiatives, and Aramco's 110 projects planned through 2026 continue the industrial investment that defines the province's economy.
King Abdul Aziz Port at Dammam saw 37% container growth in H1 2024, the logistics hub serving both oil exports and consumer imports. King Salman Energy Park has attracted $3 billion in industrial investment, Honeywell and Siemens establishing local manufacturing presence. Whether the Eastern Province can diversify beyond hydrocarbons—or whether oil's eventual decline leaves stranded assets—tests the Vision 2030 transformation that began with the source of the wealth requiring transformation.