Page 30 - UAE Truncal States
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Geographical Conditions

         raphy of the country under consideration become meaningful when
         looked at in the context of the conditions of the area in economic,
         political, strategic or sociological lerms. To show for the United Arab
         Emirates the mutual influence of the geographical and the historical
         factors, and to evaluate how they condition each other’s relevance at
         this very point in time, provide the frame in which the present-day
         society in the UAE is to be seen.1 The historical factors which are
         largely responsible for the way in which this present-day society
         functions are in themselves results of a varying relevance of the
         geographical factors to society in the past.
           This chapter is concerned with the physical geography of the UAE.
         The order of priority reflects to some extent the effect of this
         geography on the country’s economy and, as a result of this, on its
         present social and political structure. However, the more detailed
         discussions of this effect have to be deferred to later chapters in order
         to trace the changing importance of geographical conditions and to
         assess their role with regard to the various facets of present-day
         society in the UAE.



         2 Ecology: Some implications of the UAE’s                               i
             geographical setting

         Oil
        In an enumeration of geographical factors according to their
        importance to the new State of the UAE, the occurrence of oil in
        certain geological formations under its territory occupies the first
        place. The known oilfields are located chiefly in the territory and the
        territorial waters of Abu Dhabi. Dubai also exports oil, Sharjah
        exports a small amount, and hydrocarbons have been found in small
        quantities in Ra’s al Khaimah and Umm al Qaiwain. In 1981 a total of
        73 million tons was exported from the UAE, (in 1979 it was 90
        million), which constituted 10 per cent of the oil lifted from terminals
        situated on the Gulf. Oil put this State, together with some of its oil-
        producing neighbours, on the international map. It serves as a bridge
        for contacts with the rest of the world, in particular with the
        countries where the oil is consumed and with those countries which
        have provided the experts for its production. In the late 1970s and
        early 1980s about 30 per cent of the Abu Dhabi and Dubai oil went to
        Europe, 30 per cent to the USA, and 30 per cent to Japan. Of the

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