Dec 12, 2007
Taken from mafiwasta;
The UAE comprises 7 semi-autonomous Emirates, of which Abu Dhabi and Dubai are the wealthiest and most well-known respectively. Abu Dhabi, home to 94% of the country's oil and gas reserves (many of them offshore) is the heart of the nation. Its ruling family the Al-Nahyans control the government. The President (Shaikh Khalifa), both Deputy Prime-Ministers, the Minister of Interior, the Minister of Presidential Affairs, the Foreign Minister, and the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research are all Al-Nahyans. The country's second most powerful family are the Al-Makhtoums of Dubai who own, amongst other things, Emirates Airlines and Madame Tussauds. Sheikh Mohammad of Dubai, is widely credited with the succesful diversification of Dubai's economy.
According to Oil and Gas Journal (1/1/05), the UAE contains proven crude oil reserves of 97.8 billion barrels, or slightly less than 8 percent of the world total. Abu Dhabi holds 94 percent of this amount, or about 92.2 billion barrels. Dubai contains an estimated 4.0 billion barrels, followed by Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah, with 1.5 billion and 100 million barrels of oil, respectively. The UAE's current OPEC production quota (effective March 16, 2005) is 2.40 million bbl/d, and its current crude oil production as of April 2005 is 2.50 million bbl/d. The UAE's total production capacity is 2.50 million bbl/d, so it does not have any spare capacity at the current level of production. Dubai's oil supplies are expected to be exhausted within 20 years.
The vast majority of the country's ongoing contracts, worth an estimated $223 billion, are in the hands of Government entities such as Nakheel and Emaar. That is to say, that the same powerful families charged with setting and enforcing labour laws (they're very good at the former and very very bad at the latter) are also leading the charge to get-even-richer-even-quicker. Further details of this can be found in our complaint to the ILO.
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