In terms of the economy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, oil will continue to play a key role. The Kingdom’s development plans have used the oil revenues to diversify the Saudi Arabian economy, expanding the non-oil industrial sector and the agricultural sector. It remains, nevertheless, true that oil will continue to represent the major sector of the economy. In 2002, official estimates of Saudi Arabian oil reserves stood at 261,800 million barrels; proven gas reserves were estimated at 224.7 trillion cubic feet [6.36 trillion cu m]. Even these estimates are considered conservative by many who have suggested that oil reserves could be as high as 315,000 million barrels. It is therefore inevitable that in this new century the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will continue to derive most of its income from the black gold that lies within its territory.

It is also inevitable that the Kingdom’s role in the politics and economics of the Middle East, and indeed, on the wider international stage, will grow in importance, as the smaller oil reserves of other countries become more difficult and more expensive to exploit - or, finally, are exhausted.