Abdullah Tariki

Abdullah Tariki (19 March 1919–7 September 1997) (Arabic: عبدالله الطريقي) (alternate spelling of last name: al-Turayqi), also known as Red Sheikh,[1] was a Saudi politician and government official. He was the first Saudi oil minister appointed by King Saud and co-founder of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Abdullah Tariki
Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources
In office
December 1960 – 9 March 1962
Prime MinisterKing Saud
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byAhmed Zaki Yamani
Personal details
Born
Abdullah ibn Hamoud Tariki

(1919-03-19)19 March 1919
Zulfi, Emirate of Nejd and Hasa
Died7 September 1997(1997-09-07) (aged 78)
Cairo, Egypt
NationalitySaudi Arabian
Alma mater

Historian Eugene Rogan called him "one of the first Arab oil experts."[2] In April 1959, Time magazine described him as "the unquestioned spokesman of the new generation of Arab experts on oil."[3]

Early life and education

Tariki was born on 19 March 1919 in Al Zulfi, Najd.[4] His father was a Najdi townsman[5] and was a camel owner who organized caravans between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.[6] His mother was a bedouin.[5] One of Tariki's childhood friends was Mustafa Wahba, son of Hafiz Wahba and the founding and long-term secretary general of the Communist Party in Saudi Arabia.[7]

Tariki received his early education in Kuwait and in Cairo.[8] In total he spent twelve years studying in Egypt.[2] He received a bachelor's degree in geology and chemistry from Cairo University in 1944.[4] He graduated from the University of Texas in 1947, earning a master's degree in petroleum engineering and geology.[4][9] He was also trained at the Texas Oil Company after graduation before returning to Saudi Arabia.[4][10]

Career and activities

After his graduation Tariki was employed as a geologist for the Texas Oil Company in Texas and California.[11] He returned to Saudi Arabia in 1948[11] and began to work at the ministry of finance office in Dammam from May 1953 to December 1954.[9] He served as an interpreter at the initial phase of his career at the ministry.[12] In December 1954, Tariki was appointed director-general of petroleum and mineral affairs in the ministry of finance and national economy.[9][13] This "made him the highest-ranked Saudi in the oil industry" at the time.[2]

Tariki's work at the directorate involved processing the petroleum production statistics provided by the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco), and analysis summaries were then presented to the Saudi royal family. Tariki represented Saudi Arabia in the first Arab Petroleum Congress held in April 1959.[3] In May 1959 he was named one of two representatives of the Saudi government as directors of the Aramco.[14] The other one was Hafiz Wahba.[14] They were the first Saudi officials at the company.[14]

Tariki was one of the earliest critics of Aramco, arguing that the US companies should consult more with Saudi officials in exploring, pumping and selling of oil.[15] He was a Nasserite, as well as an Arab nationalist.[16] He called for a constitutional monarchy in Saudi Arabia and the nationalization of Arab oil.[16][17] To achieve this goal, he and Venezuela's mines minister Juan Pablo Perez Alfonso strongly supported the foundation of the OPEC and eventually became ita founding members in September 1960.[8][18]

The ministry of petroleum and mineral resources was created in December 1960, and Tariki was appointed the first oil minister.[19][20] His confidants in the government included King Saud's advisor Abdulaziz Al Muammar and Prince Mutaib bin Abdulaziz.[21] Tariki joined Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz's camp, Free Princes Movement, in 1961,[22] and they accused Crown Prince Faisal, later King Faisal, of corruption.[19] Tariki became a powerful ally of the movement.[6] He claimed on evidence that Kamal Adham, who was the brother-in-law of Prince Faisal, got 2% of the profits of the Arabian Oil Company that had been cofounded by Saudi Arabia and Japan.[19]

Dismissal

Tariki was removed from office by Prince Faisal when the latter was functioning as the acting head of the state as a result of the clash between him and King Saud in March 1962.[23][24] More specifically, King Saud dismissed him and four other members of the cabinet following his announcement of the constitution which had been developed by Free Princes movement members with the help of Egyptian lawyers.[25] The Sudairi Seven, led by Prince Fahd, were very influential in this campaign against Tariki and others.[25] According to political scientist Jeff Colgan, "the underlying problem was his nationalist ideology, though other events triggered his dismissal. His nationalist vision for the oil sector had become embarrassing to the Saudis who sought to cement their relationship with the United States."[16] The other cabinet ministers who were asked to resign from the office included Hasan Nasif, Abdallah Al Dabbagh, Ibrahim Al Suwayil and Nasir Al Manqur.[25] Tariki was succeeded by Ahmed Zaki Yamani as oil minister, and Yamani sacked Tariki also from Aramco's board.[19]

Later years

Following his dismissal, Tariki went to exile and settled in Beirut.[17][19] In January 1963, he and Lebanese oil expert Nicholas Sarkis founded an oil consulting firm in Beirut.[9] Tariki also launched a journal there, Arab Oil and Gas,[26] and contributed to Al Anwar, a Lebanese daily.[27] One of his articles in Al Anwar was an open letter to the Shah of Iran dated 19 May 1969.[27]

Muammar Gaddafi sought Tariki's advice on national oil policy in the aftermath of the 1969 Libyan revolution.[2]

Tariki could visit Saudi Arabia only after the death of King Faisal in 1975.[6] Later, Tariki settled in Cairo.[28]

Personal life and death

When Tariki was attending the University of Texas, he married an American woman.[29] They later divorced in Saudi Arabia.[29] Tariki died of a heart attack on 7 September 1997 in Cairo at the age of 78.[30][31] His body was taken to Saudi Arabia for burial.[28]

Honors

References
  1. "Irresistible Libyan Crude". Middle East Online. 10 April 2011. Archived from the original on 5 April 2013. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
  2. Rogan, Eugene L. (2009). The Arabs: a history. New York, NY: Basic Books. pp. 357, 360. ISBN 978-0-465-07100-5.
  3. Nelida Fuccaro (2020). "Oilmen, Petroleum Arabism and OPEC". In Dag Harald Claes; Giuliano Garavini (eds.). Handbook of OPEC and the Global Energy Order. Past, Present and Future Challenges. London: Routledge. p. 18. doi:10.4324/9780429203190. ISBN 9780429203190. S2CID 211416208.
  4. Joe Neal (May 1961). "A Sheikh of Arabia". The Alcalde: 16.
  5. William Rugh (Winter 1973). "Emergence of a New Middle Class in Saudi Arabia". The Middle East Journal. 27 (1): 7–20. JSTOR 4325018.
  6. Kai Bird (2010). Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978. New York: Scribner. p. 125. ISBN 978-1-4391-7160-8.
  7. "عاش مع الطريقي طفولة الكويت، السيد مصطفى حافظ وهبة لـ"إيلاف" : لم يكن الطريقي متعالياً ولا مغروراً، وعلى طاشكندي أن يراجع كلامه!!". Elaph (in Arabic). 24 June 2003. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  8. Youssef M. Ibrahim (16 September 1997). "Sheik Abdullah al Tariki, 80, First Saudi Arabian Oil Minister," New York Times.
  9. Stephen Duguid (July 1970). "A Biographical Approach to the Study of Social Change in the Middle East: Abdullah Tariki as a New Man". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 1 (3): 195–220. doi:10.1017/s0020743800024168. JSTOR 162327. S2CID 163854423.
  10. Robert Vitalis (2007). America's Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-8047-5446-0.
  11. Constance Eileen Chaffin Lewis (1990). From concession to nationalization: Saudi Arabia and the Arabian American oil company, 1933-1988 (MA thesis). Northeast Missouri State University. p. 59. ISBN 979-8-208-13986-8. ProQuest 303932363.
  12. Steffen Hertog (2007). "Shaping the Saudi state: Human agency's shifting role in the rentier state formation" (PDF). International Journal of Middle East Studies. 39 (4): 539–563. doi:10.1017/S0020743807071073. S2CID 145139112.
  13. Steffen Hertog (2008). "Petromin: the slow death of statist oil development in Saudi Arabia". Business History. 50 (5): 645–667. doi:10.1080/00076790802246087. S2CID 154116939.
  14. "Two Sheiks Join Aramco Board; Named to Represent the Government of Saudi Arabia". The New York Times. 22 May 1959.
  15. "Saudi oil ministers past and present". Reuters. 25 February 2011.
  16. Jeff D. Colgan (2021). Partial Hegemony: Oil Politics and International Order. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 59–60, 72. ISBN 978-0-19-754640-6.
  17. Shukri Mohammed Ghanem (1986). OPEC: The Rise and Fall of an Exclusive Club. London; New York: KPI. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-7103-0175-8.
  18. M. S. Vassiliou (2009). Historical Dictionary of the Petroleum Industry. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. p. 364. ISBN 978-0-8108-6288-3.
  19. M. S. Vassiliou (2009). The A to Z of the Petroleum Industry. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. p. 496. ISBN 978-0-8108-7066-6.
  20. Yitzhak Oron, ed. (1961). Middle East Record. Vol. 2. Jerusalem: Israel Program for Scientific Translations. p. 419. GGKEY:4Q1FXYK79X8.
  21. Summer Scott Huyette (1984). Political Adaptation in Saudi Arabia: A Study of the Council of Ministers (PhD thesis). Columbia University. p. 141. ProQuest 303285259.
  22. Vijay Prashad (2007). The Darker Nations- A Biography of the Short-Lived Third World. New Delhi: LeftWord Books. p. 275. ISBN 978-81-87496-66-3.
  23. Amy Myers Jaffe; Jareer Elias (2007). "Saudi Aramco: National Flagship with Global Responsibilities" (Policy Report). Rice University.
  24. Steffen Hertog (2010). Princes, Brokers, and Bureaucrats: Oil and the State in Saudi Arabia. Cornell University Press. p. 74. ISBN 9780801447815. JSTOR 10.7591/j.ctt7zbkq.10.
  25. Rosie Bsheer (February 2018). "A Counter-Revolutionary State: Popular Movements and the Making of Saudi Arabia". Past & Present. 238 (1): 247. doi:10.1093/pastj/gtx057.
  26. Brandon Roy Wolfe-Hunnicutt (2011). The End of the Concessionary Regime: Oil and American Power in Iraq, 1958-1972 (PhD thesis). Stanford University. p. 153. STANFORD:TM772ZZ7352.
  27. "Chronology May 16, 1969-August 15, 1969". Middle East Journal. 23 (4): 521. 1969. JSTOR 4324514.
  28. "Former Saudi oil minister dies". Associated Press. Cairo. 10 September 1997.
  29. Madawi Al Rasheed (2010). A History of Saudi Arabia. Cambridge: [Cambridge University Press]. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-521-76128-4.
  30. Obituary: "Abdullah ibn Hamoud Al Tariki," The Washington Post. 12 September 1997.
  31. "Abdullah Al Tariki, 80, A Co-founder of Opec". Chicago Tribune. London. 21 September 1997.
  32. Pierre Terzian (1985). OPEC, the Inside Story. London; Totowa, NJ: Zed Books. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-86232-220-5.
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