Saudi Arabia. From the East Coast, on the Persian Gulf, American engineers from Standard Oil send a telegram to their parent company, Standard Oil of California, in San Francisco (SoCal, later renamed Chevron): after five years of exploration, significant quantities of oil have been found. The well is Dammam No. 7, which is already gushing 1,585 barrels of crude oil per day. A few months later, SoCal management meets with the Saudi monarch, Abdul Aziz, who, surprised, declares: “I’m very happy; I really didn’t expect this.” Aramco (Arabian-American Oil Company) is founded, which will be the protagonist of the Saudi oil boom throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. In 1938, the Saudi monarch was on the verge of bankruptcy: most of his income came from pilgrimages to Islamic holy sites, but with the Great Depression, this had dropped significantly. Aramco and oil seal an alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia, which will also become political-military, and will have a long life.
