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But Aramco is always obsequiously anxious not to jeopardize a deal which is one of oildom's most profitable. At 40¢ a barrel (v. $1.03 in the U.S.), Arabian Oil is one of the world's cheapest to produce, sells for $1.90 on the world market. From the beginning, Aramco's operations have been an exemplary display of enlightened management. In 1950, seeing the handwriting writ large across the Middle East by Britain's gathering troubles in Iran, Aramco increased the Saud share in the oil profits to 50%, the Middle East's first 50-50 contract, patterned on the pact made by Creole Petroleum with Venezuela. For its Saudi employees, Aramco has built schools, hospitals, recreation halls and swimming pools. To appease Saudi pride, it has replaced Americans with Saudis as fast as Saudis can be trained. Today its payroll includes 14,000 Saudis v. 3,000 Americans. To avoid any charge of discrimination, Aramco allocates living quarters on a basis of wage scale and competence rather than nationality. Nineteen Saudis who have reached "senior staff" ratings live in the senior staff camp among their U.S. colleagues.
But most of Aramco's Americans come to Arabia with no sense of mission. In Dhahran they have created a Levittown complete with automatic dishwashers, bowling alleys, ladies' socials and nightly movies. Their pay is 25% above comparable jobs in the U.S. and tax free—but they growl about the heat, curse the dust, and count the days until they can return home and buy that restaurant or farm with the money they have saved. Saud's rigid Moslem code imposes added irritants. Books are banned (apparently in fear of subversive literature). Wives are irritated by the Saudi refusal to let women drive anywhere outside the company compounds. Christian worship is forbidden, and services must be conducted surreptitiously by a priest who flies in from Bahrein and gives his profession as "teacher." Both Aramco and the U.S. military advisory groups are forbidden to have Jewish employees, and an American who receives a letter with an Israeli postmark is deported. The ban on liquor is partly circumvented by the construction of home stills in many a ranch house, and by black-marketing which makes Scotch available in Jiddah at $40 a bottle. "We have only one thing in common," said one Aramco employee dispassionately. "They have oil, and we want it."
The Saudis never let Aramco forget that it is a private enterprise allowed to exist only by sufferance of the King. To underline the point, King Saud has gone out of his way to assert his political independence of the U.S. After a four-year trial, Saud politely ejected a Point Four mission on the ground that it was too bossy. In 1953 the Saudi government accepted a military assistance agreement, only to cancel it before it went into effect because it was contingent on too much U.S. supervision. The U.S. was allowed to build the Dhahran airfield itself only with the stipulation that every installation would become Saudi property as soon as completed.