Saudi Arabia has emerged as a behemoth in the global oil and gas industry. Almost 80 years after oil was first sucked from beneath the sweeping desert sands, the country stands proud as the world's largest producer and exporter of oil.
It is estimated that Saudi Arabia maintains more than 260 billion barrels, more than any other oil-producing nation and representing a quarter of the world's proven reserves. However, the early oil years proved a difficult time for explorers who scratched around potential deposits on the east coast of the country with limited reward.
Modern Saudi Arabia was born in 1932 with the unification of the Hejaz and Nejd regions by King Abdul Aziz after a series of conquests that started in 1925.
One year after the formation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the government granted its first oil concession to Standard Oil of California (Socal), but now known as Chevron.
Socal raised hopes of an early killing with the second drill at Dammam 2 producing more than 3,800 barrels a day. The company bolstered its workforce to meet the expected increased load, but hopes faded as Dammam 2 gradually produced more water than oil.
The future looked grim as Dammam 3's capacity peaked at only 100 barrels a day, while Dammams 4 to 6 were either bare or produced only a trickle of oil. Three years later, Socal had sold half of the concession to the Texas Oil Company, now called Texaco, but the company endured another five barren years and had all but shut shop in Saudi. Only Dammam 7 was in operation.