Oil and all that

Here is an oil tanker that is loading up on good ol' Kuwaiti black gold. Unlike the United Arab Emirates, the Kuwaitis have huge oil reserves and just pump it out as fast as they can drill it. They act like it will never run out but at the rate the western world gobbles it up they will be back to poverty in 100 years.

This offloading terminal is about 1 mile from where I bunk and this shot is from my rooftop. There is usually a patrol boat cruising around here. Oh wait, here he is!

They jealously guard the refineries, ports, tankers and anything else to do with this as oil is just about the only revenue they have. There is no other industry to speak of. There is no tourism, banking, stock market, manufacturing, trade or other type industry. There are no industries here that don't have some sort of financial tentacle going back to oil except those which support the US Military.

If you see an American in Kuwait he or she is about 95% sure to be involved with the military or the oil business. It makes for a very small and close knit EXPAT community here.

If it were not for the oil the British would not have carved Kuwait out of what is now Iraq in the first place. Kuwait was, is, and always will be about oil. If you are wondering why I have not written anything lately it is because the days have just run together. Eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep, work. That is life over here. There is no time for anything else. That is probably a good thing as this way I don't think about home.