Crazy Oil Money

So I want to write a brief thing about how money works here in the UAE. As we all know, this country has most of its income based around petroleum and natural gas. Now Abu Dhabi wants to shift more into its services sector, but Oil is still king. Abu Dhabi pumps out about 2.5 Million Barrels of oil a day. This equates to about 170 Million dollars a day from oil profit. FROM ONE DAY! Now this may not seem like a ton compared to the US, but keep in mind that this money is spent in one city of only 4 million people. This would be the equivalent of the US making 12 BILLION dollars a day!!!! Only if this were the case we would never have to worry about a bank bailout or universal health care again.


With this money the entire country has been able to develop crazy fast. Only 40 years ago, people lived in one story huts without electricity. ONLY 40 YEARS AGO. Now it has more sky scrapers than most of the counties in the world and one of the longest life spans due to its pretty impressive heath facilities. There are also hundreds of thousands of trees that line the streets and buildings. All of the plants are imported and must be watered daily. A huge expense, but it nothing compared to the money they earn. Along with this money comes with massive visions for the future, which includes Masdar.


All of this money has not totally been squandered on big building and big cars (The UAE has the largest carbon footprint in the world). Sheikh Zayed, the leader who formed the UAE and guided its growth for the past 50 years, has been very generous with the oil wealth of the country. He has donated billions of dollars to the other six emirates to help their growth. Billions more have gone to other Arab nations to help with education, medicine and nation building. The money has done a lot of good in the region, and will continue to do so.