Developing a Rational Maritime Policy for Saudi Arabia
Introduction: The Untapped Potential of Saudi Arabia’s Maritime Resources
Saudi Arabia is not a nation whose fate has been historically associated with the oceans. Images conjured of Saudi Arabia will involve oil fields and vast deserts. At first blush, there seems little reason to even consider a maritime policy for the nation, let alone a rational and holistic one that incorporates information from many maritime interests and successfully coordinates policy decisions for all. This is a misconception. In fact, Saudi Arabia has an intimate and strategic relationship with two major oceanic routes: the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. As the importance of these routes is certain to grow in the coming years and decades, it is important for Saudi Arabia to consider today the means by which a sensible maritime policy can be devised and implemented.
Despite the conception that Saudi Arabia is a landlocked desert nation, its fate and success depends on cogent management of its maritime resources. Unlike Western—and in particular European—nations, Saudi Arabia does not have an extensive history as a seafaring nation. The European age of imperialism, combined with Europe’s natural maritime resources, meant that the West has had a long and powerful relationship with the seas. Of course, just because the West has a stronger historical link with its maritime resources has not meant that it has deployed significantly more holistic maritime policies than Saudi Arabia.
The European Commission’s Maritime Policy Task Force (2006) recently reported the fundamental problem the EU faces regarding its maritime resources:
So far our policies on maritime transport, industry, coastal regions, offshore energy, fisheries, the marine environment and other relevant areas have been developed separately. Of course we have tried to ensure that their impact on each other was taken into account. But no one was looking at the broader links between them. No one was examining in a systematic manner how these policies could be combined to reinforce each other.
Fragmentation can result in the adoption of conflicting measures, which in turn have negative consequences on the marine environment or may impose disproportionate constraints on competing maritime activities. Moreover, fragmentation of decision-making makes it difficult to comprehend the potential impact of one set of activities upon another. It prevents us from exploring untapped synergies between different maritime sectors. (p. 4)
From this we can see that even the European Union, with its long history as a collection of sea-faring nations, faces fragmentation of its general maritime policies. If this is the case, then we should expect that a similar focus on creating a singular, cohesive maritime policy in Saudi Arabia would address similar concerns and would, perhaps, have even more powerful effects. If Saudi Arabia can work toward the development of a sustainable, holistic maritime policy it has the real opportunity to ensure its long-term success as a nation whose fortunes are very much dependent on the seaways it controls.
The purpose of this study isn’t to develop a definitive maritime policy for Saudi Arabia. Instead, this examination will probe the dominant and prevailing maritime issues that Saudi Arabia faces and suggest some means by which a holistic approach could improve management of Saudi Arabia’s maritime resources. The aim is not to override existing maritime policies in Saudi Arabia in favor of ones cut whole from new cloth. Instead, the overall goal will be to find new ways to integrate existing policies and attitudes, but leaving room within the policy to develop new protocols for the gaps that exist.
For a holistic maritime policy to be a success in Saudi Arabia it must strike a balance between a diverse set of competing needs. The nation’s maritime resources are significant, but not limitless. In order to be sustainable, any policy recommendations must weave their way through economic, social, environmental, and security issues. Despite the challenge this represents, it is an achievable goal. Saudi Arabia’s maritime resources constitute an important component of the nation’s future success. Developing the policies now that will allow the nation to move forward sustain-ably toward that future is paramount.
Saudi Arabia must consider the development of a holistic maritime policy that integrates currently fragmented policy protocols to create a cohesive plan for the nation’s maritime resources. Some of the major issues that currently face Saudi Arabia in terms of its maritime resources and policies include a lack of understand of the extent of the resources available. In other words, because all of the interested parties are not fully aware of each other and their competing or complementary interests, effective and efficient policy decisions cannot be easily made. Additionally, marine infrastructure in Saudi Arabia is in significant need of advancement. Only this year has the Saudi Port Authority devised plans to expand port facilities throughout the kingdom—of course, this announcement came without any other examination of how expansion would fit into an overall maritime policy.
Whereas other nations can develop a maritime policy with only slight regard to security issues, Saudi Arabia’s strategic geographic position, its vast energy resources, and its location in a volatile region of the world all contribute to the greater need for active policing of territorial waters. Any effective maritime policy must make allowances to ensure the safety and security of the seas and oceans. For the sake of Saudi industry, development, and continued trade with the world, it is important that Saudi Arabia minimizes any potential disruptions to marine commerce as possible including terrorist, political, and criminal threat.
As a final note, attention must be paid to environmental integrity in any maritime policy. Failure to do so is likely to result in the fast deterioration of existing marine resources and the ineffectual ability of those resources to continue to produce value for the nation. Marine resources can be sustain-ably harvested if care is taken to protect the environment in the process. In the interest of a maritime policy that fosters long-term sustainability, attention to the environment is crucial.
The Extent of the Maritime Sector for Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia’s maritime sector is more significant than one might at first realize. For this reason especially, we must consider a cohesive and rational maritime policy that can integrate information and action from a variety of interests into a simple whole. Maritime resources include control over or access to major shipping lanes in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. This is in addition to access to offshore energy reserves, primarily in the form of oil and other fossil fuels. Saudi Arabia’s maritime sector must also consider potentially new industries beyond the tried and true venues of shipping and energy production. Additionally, Saudi Arabia has access to potential aquaculture resources, desalinization facilities, and tourism primarily along the Red Sea coastline.
The maritime sector for Saudi Arabia must consider other factors, however, beyond simply the vast opportunity for development and management that already exists. Because of the volatile nature of the region in which Saudi Arabia is situated, unique and persistent threats challenge the nation’s maritime resources and may limit the effectiveness to which the nation can access and control its maritime resources. Providing for safe, secure, and efficient transport and usage of the marine environment is crucial to long-term efforts to sustain-ably manage the resources ( 2006).
In that regard, Saudi Arabia must try to secure the region from criminal and political threats such as groups engaged in piracy or political terrorism. Such actions undermine the safe passage of legitimate travelers and cargo through the area. Saudi Arabia already controls significant political leverage on shipping because of its proximity to two major bodies of water and because of its important oil shipping industry (Saudi Arabia 2006). Enforced security that is quickly able to respond to threats throughout Saudi Arabia’s territorial waters is an important component in the regional maritime policy. The nation cannot afford to be so naïve as to assume that all other interested parties in the region will simply play nice. Saudi Arabia’s maritime resources are significant and could represent an enticing target to a motivated group or nation.
An additional form of manmade threat includes pollution. This can be runoff from land-based industry and development. However, given the nature of the ocean-going vessels that frequent Saudi ports, it is much more likely that environmental degradation will occur because of oil spills (Saudi Arabia 2006). Protection of the nation’s maritime resources requires a clear focus on marine health and environmental integrity. While this is often considered an anathema to normal economic development, this attitude is shortsighted and prosaic. In fact, environmental and marine ecosystem health is an important factor that affects a number of industries and marine resources. Pollution and spills can disrupt shipping activities, damage fragile aquaculture resources, negatively impact tourism in the region, and even threaten efforts to produce freshwater via desalinization treatment. Rational environmental policies must form a key component in any holistic maritime policy because the state of the marine environment is likely to have such a significant effect on so many aspects of the maritime policy and development.
Maintaining Peak Efficiency: Shipyards, the Merchant Marine Fleet, and New Technology
Saudi Arabia, in order to develop a powerful maritime economy, should take note from the actions and attitudes of other maritime nations such as Norway. The Norwegian authorities have long supported a holistic approach to maritime management, which is reflected in their interest in maintaining equal footing for a variety of maritime interests. These interests include fishing/aquaculture, maritime traffic, and marine infrastructure ( 2006).
Among the most important element in the Norwegian approach to maritime policymaking is the focus on the development of efficient seaports and other marine infrastructursen 2006). For Saudi Arabia, this is especially important as existing infrastructure and technology isn’t necessarily up to the tasks required.
Saudi Arabia currently has five major commercial ports and two industrial ports. The commercial ports are at Jiddah, Dammam, Jizan, Jubail, and Yanbu. The industrial ports are at Jubail and Yanbu. There is also a dedicated oil port at Ras Tanura, however the Saudi authorities do not directly consider this port to be either commercial or industrial in nature. In 2000/2001 alone, the main industrial ports themselves handled more than 60 million tons of cargo (Shipping and ports 2006). This significant amount of traffic that passes through the busy Saudi Arabian ports is suggestive of the need for improved and expanded infrastructure as part of a cohesive maritime policy. After all, without acceptable port facilities, any efforts to manage or exploit the national maritime resources will be highly ineffectual at best.
In fact, there have been recent efforts in Saudi Arabia to expand and update the existing port facilities to better keep pace with demand and improve the quality of import/export processes. The Saudi Port Authority announced in 2006 that it had plans to expand port facilities throughout the nation, with the intention of improving the existing infrastructure. By June 2006 bids were already being taken for plans to double the existing shipping container throughput at the King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam (Port activity 2006; Harboring ambitions 2006). These efforts represent an important step in the creation of a total maritime policy so long as planner and policymakers can fully consider and grasp the implications that port expansion will have for other interested parties and agencies also involved in utilizing Saudi Arabia’s maritime resources. Development for development’s sake does not constitute a rational approach to maritime management.
Further, thought must be given to the state of the Saudi Arabia merchant marine force. Currently, that consists of 64 total ships: five cargo ships, fifteen chemical tankers, four container ships, eight passenger/cargo ships, twenty petroleum tankers, three refrigerated cargo ships, and nine roll-on/roll-off ships ( 2006). A useful maritime policy for the future will not consider these as static resources that can be tapped and utilized forever—or even that should be. First, expansion of the fleet is an important step in economic development. Second, existing ships will be phased out over time as they become obsolete. Third, new developments in maritime technology will require upgrades and updates to the existing fleet in the interest of efficiency, productivity, safety, and security. Ignoring advances in technology today will only hamstring the merchant marine fleet in the decades to come, as it will inevitably fall behind the resources and infrastructure available to other nations. Only through concerted development and upgrading as part of a national maritime policy can the nation expect to see consistent and regular improvements in the state of the fleet and its positive effects on the maritime economy.
Unique Regional Security Concerns
Saudi Arabia is a nation in the midst of one of the most politically contested regions of the world, with highly valuable natural energy resources, and a host of extremist groups willing to use terrorist actions to achieve their goals. Currently, estimates put Saudi Arabia’s untapped energy potential in oil at roughly 262 billion barrels (Appleyard 2005). Without question, incorporation of specific solutions to the security issues of the region is necessary toward the development of a coherent maritime policy that provides for safe and secure use of the nation’s resources.
Saudi Arabia currently holds some of the world’s largest untapped oil resources along with other Middle Eastern nations such as Iraq and Iran. Unlike those latter two examples, however, Saudi Arabia has a relatively congenial relationship with the West, one of the primary destinations of all the oil resources extracted from the region. Oil is literally the lifeblood of the Saudi economy. Without it Saudi Arabia would face political turmoil and likely economic collapse. As such, it is important that Saudi Arabia maintains strict control over the oil resources it has and the means to move it from sites of productions to consumers all over the world. For Saudi Arabia, this means securing ports and its surrounding territorial waters. Threats to the continued flow of oil tankers abroad include foreign powers intent on claiming Saudi Arabia’s oil resources as their own as well as terrorist organizations that might be interested in disrupting Saudi shipping lanes in order to halt the cheap transport of oil to the West.
The fact is that terrorism has long been used as political currency in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia’s seemingly benign presence in the region does not make it immune from such attacks. In fact, Saudi Arabia’s maritime resources could well make it a prime target at some future date. The nation possesses more than 2,400 kilometers of coastline, nearly equally divided between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf (Saudi Arabia 2006). With major ports on both coasts, Saudi Arabia enjoys a significant strategic presence in two of the most important shipping and naval passages through the Middle East. In this position, Saudi Arabia sits at the crossroads of the East and the West, with clear access to ports in Europe and Africa as well as Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim. From a shipping standpoint alone—not to mention as a nation that deals in oil resources—this is a highly valuable position, one that could well be coveted by other nations. It is important that Saudi Arabia recognizes this value and act accordingly to secure its territorial waters as part of its overall maritime policy.
Saudi Arabia already has a naval presence. This presence should be more fully integrated with the overall maritime policy that will be highly influenced by the relative security of the nation’s territorial waters. In addition to terrorist threats, ocean-going vessels must be cognizant of illegal trafficking and piracy. A comprehensive maritime policy for the region must include a coast guard force that is highly responsive and trained to deal with a wide variety of potential threats. Under this proposal, the Saudi coast guard should be able to deal with crises within the territorial waters of Saudi Arabia—amounting to roughly 29,000 square kilometers—of a criminal, terrorist, or even rescue nature. This is an impressive swath of ocean, one of the largest territorial waters in the Middle East. Effectively policing an area that large will, by consequence, not be simple.
This is why the security of the maritime resources of Saudi Arabia depends on successful holistic management. The best equipped coast guard in the world, with the best equipment and highly trained personnel, still would be unable to monitor every incidence within a region this large—especially when it is home to so many major shipping routes. Security will not be achieved by simply increasing the budget for the Saudi coast guard forces, though that would certainly help. More importantly, there must exist a central site of coordination for the large amount of information regarding the maritime resources of the area. Security will depend on the ability of the coast guard forces to receive, understand, and react to information from a variety of sources including the merchant marine, port authorities, and even scientific research. Data collection and integration is the first step toward ensuring a secure sea zone for Saudi Arabia.
Importance of Environmental Integrity
Too often overlooked, the marine environment must be an integral part of any holistic, sustainable maritime policy initiative. In fact, one of the reasons that marine environmental integrity is overlooked or ignored is because it is too often deemed incompatible with desired economic development. This is a mistake. Environmental concerns, especially in the modern age, cannot be taken lightly. Responsible treatment of the environment is not an enemy of business and development, but rather a check that permits long-term, sustainable development. Sacrificing environmental integrity for short-term financial or economic gains will only result in long-term failures. A holistic approach to Saudi Arabia’s maritime resources will seek a responsible way to manage those resources.
Saudi Arabia’s environmental concerns can be isolated to a few key categories. These include the importance of a healthy marine environment for the development of aquaculture resources, the possibility of eco-tourism, the importance of desalinization initiatives, and the primary threats to environmental integrity. Each of these components must be considered in any holistic maritime policy. Striving for sustainable management of existing resources constitutes an important component of the environmental maritime policy. One Norwegian official estimates that 80-90% of all marine pollution is derived from land activities n 2006). The potential for oil spills off the shores of Saudi Arabia may modify that number slightly, but it is nonetheless a useful starting point in any discussion of marine environmentalism. Identifying the primary sources of contamination is the first step in ensuring that existing resources are available for future use.
Consider first, and briefly, the potential for aquaculture exploitation. While fisheries do not make up a significant portion of the current Saudi economy, there is little reason why this could not be so. Aquaculture potential, especially in the Red Sea area, is relatively high. With some concerted developmental efforts, it could be possible for Saudi Arabia to encourage the creation of a fishing industry. Unfortunately, aquaculture in any form is dependent upon a healthy and stable marine environment. Just as with agriculture on the land, it does the industry no good if the medium of growth is depleted or destroyed. Potential threats include contaminated run-off from land-based industry, oil or chemical spills from shipping tankers, and damage caused by irresponsible development and overuse of the region by sea-going vessels.
Eco-tourism is another untapped industry that Saudi Arabia could exploit, dependent upon successful management of the marine environment. Eco-tourists are unlikely to visit Saudi coastlines and undersea environments if the waters have been polluted with chemicals or oil. Instead, it is important for such interests that the marine environment be kept as pristine as possible so that tourists can enjoy the naturally occurring regional marine resources. In this case, economic development of an industry is highly dependent upon promoting the integrity of the marine environment. Continuing threats to eco-tourism potential include extensive shipping, pollution, and a lack of necessary infrastructure for the industry.
Another important developmental effort that needs a clean marine environment is efforts by some in Saudi Arabia to create a desalinization infrastructure in the region. While Saudi Arabia possesses an abundance of fossil fuel resources, potable water is not a significant resource for the nation. In fact, some believe that water will become a greater source of contention and conflict in the coming years than will oil in the region. Tapping formerly unusable sources of freshwater may well be crucial to the future health and success of the Saudi people. Desalinization offers one such opportunity. With a significant amount of coastlines, easy access to salt water, and extensive energy resources, Saudi Arabia has a great potential to develop desalinization facilities that could provide much of its freshwater resources in the future. Threats to the success of such projects include coastal pollution of ocean waters from shipping, land-based industry, or shipping spills.
Some of the most significant threats to marine environmental integrity have already been mentioned because of their direct effect on industry development as a maritime policy. Pollution ranks as one of the highest threats, affecting aquaculture, tourism, and desalinization efforts. Pollution of the marine environment can take many forms and can include run-off from industry on land. Regionally, oil spills constitute a very site specific and dangerous environmental threat to maritime resources.
Holistically, protection of the maritime environment can fall under the auspices of existing agencies charged with such protection, but must also be coordinated with other groups, agencies, and industries that would not normally be involved. The interdependency of maritime causes and effects, especially when it comes to the health of the marine environment, is important. As seen, several important and emergent industries are dependent upon the health of the marine environment of Saudi territorial waters. Long-term exploitation of these resources will depend on the ability to establish immediate safeguards and controls on the protections currently afforded to marine resources in the nation. Simply put, the “deterioration of our marine environment reduces the potential of the oceans and seas to provide income and jobs. Economic activities that depend on the quality of the marine environment are particularly affected” ( 2006, p. 10). There can be no better reason than lost economic development for a concerted protection of the Saudi marine environment.
Adopting European Clustering
It should already be apparent that numerous interests are competing for a finite amount of maritime resources, even for Saudi Arabia a nation not traditionally thought of as needing an overarching maritime policy. Yet, that is obviously not the case. Saudi Arabia faces common and unique issues in the management of its maritime resources. Neglecting the importance of roughly 2,640 kilometers of coastline would be a policy disaster (Saudi Arabia 2006). Fostering a joint understanding of the manner by which the interests and resources available interact, compete, and complement one another can significantly enhance the efficiency and productivity of any maritime policy.
The European Marine Equipment Council recently commented, “Given the high degree of interaction and the interdependency of all players in the [shipbuilding] sector a change of fortune in any one industry will influence others” ( 20060). In other words, maritime interests are highly interdependent. New policies or legislation affecting—for example—the types of vessels allowed to travel through territorial waters could well influence the marine ecosystem by introducing different kinds of pollutants or even foreign species. Introducing policies restricting pollution released from land into marine areas could positively affect attempts to develop freshwater resources via desalinization. The potential for interaction is almost limitless.
This idea that we can develop a useful understanding of these interdependencies has been referred to as clustering ( 2006). It is a simple enough process, but one that is especially important for the successful management of Saudi maritime resources and the development of a holistic maritime policy. Indeed, clustering could be considered the practical expression of the holistic ideal. It promotes sharing of information, combined training, and collective action. Clustering provides separate actors to combine their resources and work more efficiently, better able to coordinate their actions and mitigate consequences that might have otherwise gone unnoticed.
Concluding Remarks: The Future of Maritime Resources in Saudi Arabia
If Saudi Arabia hopes to rise to the challenge of developing a more productive relationship with its maritime resources, then it must consider a new approach to those resources. Previous and some contemporary policies were based on fragmented conceptions of the maritime resources of the nation. The oceans and seas have been viewed on a purely sectored basis. The future of effective maritime management relies on the development of a Saudi maritime policy that understands the oceans and seas as a whole and successfully integrates many policies into a singular vision.
Thus far, Saudi Arabia’s policies regarding transport, development, energy resources, security, and the environment—to name but a few maritime factors and issues—have been developed separately without must communication between these seemingly disparate policy areas. This approach to maritime policy must end.
In fact, fragmentation can be a dangerous thing, because it isolates interdependent policy areas from one another. At best, this means that gross inefficiencies will emerge and persist throughout the maritime management endeavor. At worst, it can mean that profound negative consequences can occur such as disproportionate constraints on maritime activities or significant environmental degradation. The potential impact of specific decisions and their consequences may not be understood fully, especially if those consequences occur beyond the boundaries of these fragmented policy areas. Failing to work with the interdependent nature of maritime management limits significant opportunities for improving productivity and efficiency across multiple policy areas.
The future of maritime policy in Saudi Arabia must be to combine these formerly disparate elements. Maritime security can no longer be fully divorced from industry development, port expansions, or the quality of the marine environment. The European Commission report (2006) on maritime policy in the EU notes the importance of integrated governance:
Multiple sectoral policies have emerged and exist at all levels of government: EU, national, regional, and local. Action proposals may be most appropriately taken up by different actors in different agencies and different countries or by international organizations. In the interest of keeping decisions at a level closest to the stakeholders, action at EU level should be undertaken only where it contributes value-added to the activities of others. (p. 6)
In other words, governance of multiple actors and agencies with competing or complementary interests at the national, regional, and local levels in Saudi Arabia can only be combined into a cohesive maritime policy through good governance and effective management. Sharing information to discern what actions produce the most value is crucial.
Each of these apparently different areas of concern has an effect on the other. Sometimes these effects can be cumulative, making initial bad situations much worse if not addressed early. In other cases, the resources available to one interested party may be able to deftly solve a problem that formerly tasked the resources of another party. For example, marine environmental quality could be greatly improved and protected if scientists and environmentalists actively paired with developers of desalinization plants, the former making the case that improved ocean water quality will be of benefit to efforts to produce freshwater.
All of these maritime activities must be joined together under a single policy umbrella. This will demand new ways of thinking, new ways of designing policies, and new ways of implementing them. Policies will have to be enacted at the local and national level and will involve a variety of individuals and agencies that might have competed previously or—worse still—never even heard of the other. Nonetheless, a holistic understanding of Saudi Arabia’s maritime resources, as well as a holistic conception of the management resources available to the nation, will aid in the development of sustainable policies that will protect the nation’s resources in the decades to come.
The purpose of this study has been to contribute new awareness to the importance of the maritime resources of Saudi Arabia, resources often overlooked by the world and even by the Saudis themselves. In fact, the nation has significant maritime resources. These include important shipping lanes, offshore energy deposits, bountiful marine environments potentially ripe for aquaculture development, and even the possibility of desalinization plants to produce freshwater in a predominantly desert nation. Severe pressures currently threaten all of these resources, pressures from international sources, from extremist groups, and from environmental degradation. A holistic understanding of the importance of these resources and efficient means of managing them will produce long-term, sustainable benefits to Saudi Arabia. The preservation of effective management of these resources will produce long-term development and economic benefits for the nation, as well as helping the nation preserve its maritime heritage for generations to come.
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