The United Arab Emirates seeks to increase its geopolitical positioning in the Middle East

The UAE federation, an exotic and exuberant expression of economic concentration and political conservatism on the shores of the Persian Gulf, seeks to expand its political and military influence in South Yemen (Aden).

The United Arab Emirates is a federation marked by a hybrid monarchy located in the southern Persian Gulf. Its territory is politically composed of seven emirates Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Ras al Khaima, Umm al-Qaywayn and Fujayra. It has 83,000 km2 and about 9,000,000 inhabitants, most of which, some 5,500,000, are foreign workers. Emirati citizens are approximately 32% (3,400,000).

From 1820 the emirates of the Gulf became part of a British protectorate that later acquired the name of “Truce States” guaranteeing the commercial monopoly and exploitation of resources to the United Kingdom. In 1968 they acquired independence (including Qatar and Bahrain, which later separated) under the name of United Arab Emirates.

The largest emirate is Abu Dhabi with 67,000 km2 and more than 3 million inhabitants concentrated in the capital of the same name.

 The second most populated emirate, despite being considerably smaller, is Dubai with 3,000,000 inhabitants and 4,100 km2.

The other emirates have much less territorial and demographic significance: Sharjah (234 km2 and 1,500,000 inhabitants), Ajman (258 km2 and 260,000 inhabitants), Ras al Khaima (1,680 km2 and 230,000 inhabitants), Umm al-Qaywayn (780 km2 and 72,000 inhabitants) and Fujayra (1,150 km2 and 230,000 inhabitants.

The United Arab Emirates has an important economic income due to its oil and gas fields. Gross income per capita is estimated at $ 70,000 that would increase more than double if only citizens of the country are considered.

Most of the UAE's oil fields are in the territory of Abu Dhabi offshore and continental). Abu Dhabi's oil production is 3,000,000 barrels per day, which makes it one of the world's largest producers of crude oil.

The main deposits are offshore in the waters of the Gulf, especially in the oil field called “Zakum Superior” located 50 km northwest of Abu Dhabi. The structural weave is relatively simple with softly folded and deformed layers inside which the main stratigraphic traps were formed and modeled. Geologically and structurally the field is constituted by a wide anticline (convex fold) whose axis extends in an East-West direction with a smooth dip (tilt). The hydrocarbons are contained in a Cretaceous limestone (approximate age: 100 million years).

Zakum Superior oil is contained in the Thanama Group (sedimentary) formed by carbonated rocks of lower Cretaceous age representing the most economically important reservoir in the emirate's productive zone.

Two oil systems are identified and predicted (requires confirmation) the existence of two mother rocks that could have been sources of hydrocarbons.

As always, the abundance and sustainability of the oil flow in this field suggests that in addition (or instead of) the existence of the supposed mother rocks there would be an upwelling coming from deeper levels of abiotic origin.

The Zakum Superior oil complex is one of the most productive sedimentary sequences in the world (the fourth global deposit and the second offshore) and has been in production for more than 40 years.

It is 50 km long in an East-West direction and 30 km wide. The estimated reserves are about 50,000 million barrels and the current production is about 750,000 barrels per day. It is considered that it will continue in production at least until 2026.

It was discovered in 1963 by British Petroleum and the Comagnie Francaise des Pétroles, after which it was operated by the National Company of Abu Dhabi

For its exploitation, the Zakum Development Company (ZADCO) was established to operate and develop the Site. The owners of the company are the Abu Dhabi National Company (60%), ExonMobil (28%) and the Japan Petroleum Development Company (JODCO) (12%).

The Zakum field has about 1,200 km2 of surface and is exploited by about 450 wells that enter the sedimentary basin up to 2,500 to 2,800 deep. These wells are connected with more than 90 platforms that in turn connect to the storage, processing and export site on Zirku Island.

The huge income of the Abu Dhabi oil industry has allowed it to multiply its investments worldwide and in particular in Dubai and in the city of Abu Dhabi itself, which has been transformed into an exotic window of urban architecture and luxurious social life of the Arab oligarchies of both the UAE and other Arab oil countries.

The great economic wealth of Abu Dhabi has allowed it to develop aggressive policies in the Middle East, and in particular with its neighbors Qatar (which is currently blocked by a Saudi-Emirati coalition), and Yemen. The latter country is being bombarded by the Saudi Arabian air forces for more than 3 years and at the same time it is considered that southern Yemen is becoming a separate satellite state of the UAE and in particular of Abu Dhabi increasing the role geopolitical of this government.

Lately, the southern separatist forces of the Southern Transitional Council supported by the UAE have clashed with their nominal allies, the forces of the president of Yemen who is still recognized by Saudi Arabia, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

These combats show the existence of divergences within the groups supported by the Arab oil monarchies.

These divisions favor the consolidation of the Houthi power in northern Yemen, which on the other hand, has shown its military power through various sabotage actions in both countries, including the destruction of the largest oil refinery in Saudi Arabia in Abqaiq.

The United Arab Emirates

They are an exotic and exuberant expression of economic concentration and political conservatism in the shores of the Persian Gulf. 

The United Arab Emirates is a political federation and a hybrid monarchy located in the southern Persian Gulf  

Its territory is politically composed of seven emirates Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Ras al Khaima, Umm al-Qaywayn and Fujayra. 
It has 83,000 km2 and about 9,000,000 inhabitants, most of whom,  (some 5,500,000) are foreign workers. The Emiratis citizens are approximately 32% (3,400,000) of the total population.. 

Since 1820 the emirates of the Gulf became a British protectorate that later acquired the name of "Truce States" guaranteeing monopoly commercial and exploitation of resources to the United Kingdom. In 1968 they acquired independence (including Qatar and Bahrain, which later split up) with the name of the United Arab Emirates.

The largest emirate is Abu Dhabi with 67,000 km2 and more than 3 million inhabitants concentrated in the capital of the same name. The other most populated emirate, despite being considerably 
smaller, is Dubai with 3,000,000 inhabitants and 4,100 km2 

The other emirates have much less territorial and demographic ssignificance: Sharjah (234 km2 and 1,500,000 of inhabitants), Ajman (258 km2 and 260,000 inhabitants), Ras al Khaima (1,680 km2 and 230,000 inhabitants), Umm al-Qaywayn (780 km2 and 72,, 000 inhabitants) and Fujayra (1,150 km2 and 230,000 inhabitants.

The United Arab Emirates have an important economic income due to its oil and gas deposits. The

per capita gross income is estimated at US$ 70,000 that is would more than twice if we consider only the citizens of the country. 
Most oilfields in the UAE are offshore and continental in the territory of Abu Dhabi. 
The oil production of this emirate is 3,000,000 barrels per day, which constitutes one of the largest producers of crude oil in the world crude. The main deposits are offshore in the Gulf waters especially in the oil field called "Upper Zakum" located 50 km northwest of Abu Dhabi. The structural frrame of this field is relatively simple with layers gently folded and deformed in which the hydrocarbons are contained. Geologically and structurally the field is constituted by an Ç
wide anticline (convex fold) whose axis extends East-West with mild dip (inclination). The hydrocarbons are contained in a Cretaceous limestone (approximate age: 100 millions of years)  

The formation is called Zakum Superior which is part of  the Group Thanama (sedimentary) formed by carbonated rocks of lower Cretaceous age representing the most important reservoir in the productive zone of Abu Dhabi. Two oil systems have been identified with the existence of two source rocks that would could be sources of hydrocarbons (this requires confirmation).

As always the abundance and sustainability of the flow of oil in this deposit suggests that in addition (or instead of) the existence of the alleged source rocks it may exist upwelling coming from deeper levels of abiotic origin 
(To be continued)

From the book "Geopolitics and geology of petroleum and natural gas", D.Anton, Piriguazú Ediicones

Slaves and semi-slaves in Gulf societies
Danilo Antón

Societies in the Persian Gulf or Arabian Gulf (as it is also called) seem to be predestined to operate based on the exploitation of slave (as it was historically) or semi-slave labor (as it is today).
For many centuries coastal communities based much of their income on the extraction and sale of pearls. For this they used slaves who had to constantly dive to collect as many pearls as possible. The task was so hard that divers could not resist more than a few years. 
At present the heavy work is carried out by immigrants from Asian countries. These workers live and work in conditions of semi-slavery. They live in unhealthy constructions, with poor food, without rest or labor benefits, with arbitrary payment (or not) of  wages and without freedom to be able to return to their countries because in the Gulf countries the employers retain the passports of their employees. 
Here is a brief historical review of life in Gulf Coast communities.

Pearl divers

The collection of pearl from oysters has been one of the hardest extractive operations in history. Usually slave divers were forced divers to constantly dive to obtain the valuable gems in order to satisfy the greater profits for the local employers and employers.
Since Sumerian times, in Mesopotamia, and at least since the sixth Pharaonic dynasty in Egypt (in the third millennium BCE), pearl collection was the basis of the economy of the Persian Gulf societies. 
At the beginning of the first century BCE, Pliny the Elder, in his book Historia Naturalis considered that the most perfect and exquisite pearls were obtained from the Persian Gulf in Arabia. Shortly afterwards, the Roman-Egyptian historian Ptolemy wrote about the pearl fisheries on the island of Tylos, which was the Roman name of Bahrain.
In the fourteenth century the Moroccan traveler and narrator Ibn Batuta, who toured the cities and territories of Shiraz, the oases of Al Hasa and Al Qatif, the island of Bahrain (formerly known as Awal), the Strait of Hormuz and Oman, Ratified the existence of this prosperous activity in the coastal areas of the Persian Gulf.
In the 16th century the Portuguese established several forts (in Bahrain, Al Qatif, Hormuz and Muscat), and later, when the area fell under British influence, pearl extraction continued to be the main economic support for coastal towns. In the 17th and 19th centuries the pearl banks continued to be exploited in the islands of Bahrain and Dalmah (near Abu-Dhabi), Abu Musa, Hormuz and the Lavan-Kish archipelago.
Due to the excessive extraction of oysters90 in the shallow intertidal zone, it was necessary to extend the extractive dive to the deeper waters (more than 10 meters) with the consequent risk to the divers ..
The dive was made from small wooden boats (called "dhow"). Until the early nineteenth century divers were usually slaves forced to perform 50 to 60 submersions per day. To submerge they were allowed to sink with heavy stones collecting the largest quantity of oysters before returning to the surface91. The use of slaves for the extraction of pearls on the coasts of the Persian Gulf continued until the twentieth century. In 1930 there were still several thousand slaves in the States of the Truce (now the United Arab Emirates), Qatar, Oman and Bahrain.

The Gulf in the 21st Century

Things have changed in the Gulf emirates since the days of the pearl divers.
The cause was the inflow of financial resources due to the exploitation of the local hydrocarbon deposits.
The small traditional fishing villages, which had only a few hundred or a few thousand people, became modern cities with hundreds of thousands and even millions of inhabitants.
The Emirate of Dubai, which was a tiny community at the beginning of the 20th century, today has 2,300,000 inhabitants on an area of ​​4,100 km2, Abu Dhabi has a population of 870,000, Sharjah 700,000 and Bahrain 700,000, far superior to the few dimensions of these villages in old times. The cities of today are cities built with abundant resources, great building development and daring projects that required large investments.
The case of Dubai is symptomatic. In this emirate is the tallest building in the world (Borj Khalifa with 828 meters), the largest Mall of the planet (Dubai Mall), the largest source (Dubai Fountain), extensive artificial islands (Palm Jumeirah and World Islands) , It is maintained that there is the "unique" seven star hotel that exists in the mu (Burj el Arab), as well as a subway and numerous avenues.