Abdullah al-Tariki
Encyclopedia
Abdullah ibn Hamoud al-Tariki ( Arabic: عبدالله الطريقي ) was a Saudi politician and government official. He was the first Saudi oil minister appointed by King Saud, and co-founder of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC
OPEC
OPEC is an intergovernmental organization of twelve developing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings...

) along with Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

n Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo
Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo
Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso , was a prominent Venezuelan diplomat, politician and lawyer primarily responsible for the inception and creation of OPEC.-Early career:...

.

Early life

Tariki was born in 1918 in Al Zulfi , a Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

n town which is located about 300 kilometers north of the capital city of Riyadh
Riyadh
Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 5,254,560 people, and the urban center of a...

. He was the son of a camel owner who organized caravans between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Tariki received his early education in Kuwait and in Cairo.
He became one of the first American-educated Saudis, and he is believed to be the first Saudi trained in both chemistry and geology. He graduated from the University of Texas in 1947, earning a masters in geology.

Career

In 1953, Tariki's work at the Saudi Directorate of Oil and Mining Affairs involved processing the petroleum production statistics provided by Aramco; and analysis summaries were then presented to the Saudi Royal Family. His responsibilities were increased when he was made Director General of Petroleum and Mineral Affairs in 1954.

The Saudi Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources was created in 1960, and Tariki was appointed the first oil minister. He was in charge of Sauidi oil interests from 1960 until 1962 when his views lost favor with the increasingly powerful Crown Prince, later King Faisal
Faisal of Saudi Arabia
Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud was King of Saudi Arabia from 1964 to 1975. As king, he is credited with rescuing the country's finances and implementing a policy of modernization and reform, while his main foreign policy themes were pan-Islamic Nationalism, anti-Communism, and pro-Palestinian...

.

In his later years, Tariki became a quiet, behind-the-scenes activist in Arab affairs.

Tariki died September 7, 1997 in Cairo at age 80.
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