Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia

Eastern Province
Region
الشرقية

Map of Saudi Arabia with the Eastern Province highlighted
Capital Dammam
Boroughs 11
Government
 • Governor Prince Saud bin Nayef
 • Deputy Governor Prince Jiluwi bin Abdul Aziz bin Musaed[1]
Area
 • Total 672,522 km2 (259,662 sq mi)
Population (2010)
 • Total 4,105,780
 • Density 6.1/km2 (16/sq mi)
ISO 3166-2 04

The Eastern Province (Arabic: الشرقية‎ ash-Sharqiyyah) is the largest province of Saudi Arabia. The province's capital is the city of Dammam, which hosts the majority of the region's population and its government. The current governor of the region is Prince Saud Bin Naif.

The Eastern Province is home to most of Saudi Arabia's oil production. The region is also home of the City of Jubail, which hosts the Jubail Industrial City, a global hub for chemical industries. It is also a tourist area because of its location on the coast of the Persian Gulf and the variety of entertainment activities available across the region. Most of the tourists who visit the region are from the other nearby Arab states of the Persian Gulf, and the Riyadh Region.

Geography

The Eastern Province borders the Persian Gulf, which contains the province's only maritime boundary (which is with Iran, located within the Persian Gulf) and borders 5 countries on land. Apart from this water border, the majority of the countries that the Eastern Province borders are on land, and those are: Iraq (partially), Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

The primary airport in the region is King Fahd International Airport, the largest airport in the world in terms of land area. The King Fahd Causeway, completed in 1986, links the Eastern Province to neighboring island country of Bahrain.

The largely uninhabited Rub' al Khali (Empty Quarter) desert occupies more than half of the province.

History

Ottomans

The Saudis of Najd gained control of the area after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The inhabited areas had been known as "Al-Ahsa" (Arabic: الأحساء‎) under Ottoman rule, and the entire region of Eastern Arabia was mostly known as "Bahrain" (Arabic: البحرين‎) from pre-Islamic times until 1521.

Shiite secession

In 2009 Nimr al-Nimr suggested the Eastern Province should secede if the Saudi government does not cease to oppress and discriminate against its Shiite majority. A Saudi oppositionist disclosed in 2013 that one of the reasons that Nimr was arrested was due to his advocacy of secession. He has since been executed along with a number of other dissidents[2]

Demographics

Of the 4.1 million inhabitants, 1.2 million are foreigners, making up about 29%.[3] The area is also reported to have a Shia majority.[4]

Governors of the Eastern Province

Economy

Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil producing company of Saudi Arabia, is based in Dhahran, which is located in the Eastern Province, and most decisions on oil policy and production that affect the global economy are made there. The kingdom's main oil and gas fields are mostly located in the Eastern Province, onshore and offshore. Notable among these are the Ghawar oil field and the largest crude increment in the world. Petroleum from the fields is shipped to dozens of countries from the oil port of Ras Tanura and is also used as feedstock in numerous industrial plants in Jubail.

Saudi Arabia's second major product, dates, also forms a large part of Eastern Province's economy. Every year thousands of tonnes of dates are harvested from the date palms in the giant oases of Al-Ahsa.

Administrative divisions

List of cities

Major cities

See also

References

 IraqAl Muthanna Governorate, Iraq
Northern Borders Region		 KuwaitAl Jahra and Al Ahmadi governorates, Kuwait Persian Gulf
Riyadh Region QatarJariyan al Batnah, Qatar
United Arab EmiratesAbu Dhabi, UAE
   Eastern Province  
Najran Region YemenHadhramaut Governorate, Yemen OmanAd Dhahirah, Al Wusta, and Dhofar governorate, Oman
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