Udhailiyah

Udhailiyah (Arabic: ???????? ?u ayliyyah) is a small oil company compound in the interior of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia located in the desert southwest of the Dhahran-Dammam-Khobar metropolitan area. Built by the national oil company Saudi Aramco, Udhailiyah has a population of approximately 1,350 residents, including 500 North Americans.

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Udhailiyah compound (Aramco code: UD) is the smallest of four mainly expatriate residential compounds built by Saudi Aramco, including Dhahran (the main administative center), Ras Tanura (the main refinery and oil port), and Abqaiq. It is the southernmost and most isolated of the four communities, Abqaiq being its closest Saudi Aramco compound to the north, about an hour away by car. To the south is the traditional Saudi Shi'ite city of Hofuf and the expansive Al-Hasa oasis. Udhailiyah takes its natural character from the numerous rocky hills or outcroppings, called "jebels", that surround it.

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Similar to the other three compounds, Udhailiyah is surrounded by a heavily guarded security fence, and only upper-level Saudi Aramco employees and their dependants may live inside. Built originally to allow expatriate oil company employees (mainly Americans) a degree of Western comfort and separation from the restrictions of Saudi and Islamic laws, the community today is a multi-ethnic mozaic of Americans, Saudis, other Arab nationalities (e.g. Egyptian and Jordanian), Indians, Pakistanis, etc. - all of whom continue to live in a predominantly American cultural bubble with English as the common language.

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Arabic: redirect Arabic language...

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Saudi Aramco: Saudi Aramco, the national oil company of Saudi Arabia (formerly just "Aramco", standing for the Arabian American Oil Company), is the largest oil corporation in the world and the world's largest in terms of proven crude oil reserves and production. Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Ara...