Is Saudi Arabia going to make it? It does not look like it from this report -- not when the good news is stockpiles of oil in reserve.

This is a Reuters story on YAHOO! (Nov. 22).

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Giant Gulf oil producers are scrambling to exterminate the Year 2000 millennium bug with no guarantees that they will be able to thwart the potential computer glitch from sabotaging millions of dollars in exports.

From Saudi Arabia -- the world's biggest exporter -- to smaller Gulf oil countries like Oman, state firms seem confident they will keep the oil flowing. . . .

A U.S. Senate report on the Y2K status of oil imports based on data from information technology research firm Gartner Group (NYSE:IT - news) put Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in the ''high risk of disruption'' category. It left a question mark over Iraq.

But experts say OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia appears to be in the strongest position to combat the bug in the region. . . .

''Saudi Aramco acknowledges that there remains a risk of Year 2000 associated business interruptions. To meet this challenge, the company must be prepared to manage the risk,'' the state oil firm said on its regularly updated Y2K Web site.

Oil experts said Saudi Arabia could always draw on its vast worldwide oil resources to cope with any Y2K problems.

''The Saudis have got so much excess capacity that even if there were some problems I can't see anything but a temporary problem,'' said Mehdi Varzi of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson.

''They have got tens of millions of barrels stored outside Saudi Arabia. This tends to minimize fears,'' he added. . . .

Major importers like the United States, dependent on Gulf oil, are not taking any chances. They are expected to stock up on supplies ahead of the New Year.

U.S. oil companies that have made fortunes in the Gulf have spent years and millions of dollars preparing for Y2K.

''We conducted tests in our operations in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar and we are in good shape,'' said a Chevron Corp (NYSE:CHV - news) official based in the Gulf. . . .

Hard facts on exactly what preparations have been made and how much money has been spent on Y2K compliance efforts in the Gulf is difficult to obtain.

Iran is one of the world's biggest producers but its computer systems are old, raising questions about how vulnerable OPEC's second largest producer will be to the millennium bug.

The head of the country's Y2K compliance program has said Iran's two newest refineries at Bandar Abbas and Arak face possible disruptions but other complexes are not vulnerable because they do not have date-embedded computer systems.

''It's so difficult to know the honest answer. My only view on the Iranian side is that not all the industry has been fully computerized, only in the past year or two,'' said Dresdner Kleinwort Benson's Varzi.

''Until now a lot of the oil well logging is done by hand. I don't think Iran has too much to worry about also because it has 30 million odd barrels stored in Gulf tankers ready to go.''

Some Middle East oil veterans are playing down the computer glitch issue.

*****************``These countries have an amazing ability to fix things when they go wrong. It could cause some hiccups but I am sure they will take care of it,'' said a U.S. oil executive.*****************

-- samIam (dr@seu.ss), November 24, 1999

Answers

"These countries have an amazing ability to fix things when they go wrong. It could cause some hiccups but I am sure they will take care of it"

Gosh, I feel better already...

John Ludi, a man with profound faith in simple answers to complicated problems.

-- Ludi (ludi@rollin.com), November 24, 1999.

How about this for a staggering fact:

Saudi Arabia has more proven oil reserves than all the non-OPEC world combined!

-- Downstreamer (downstream@bigfoot.com), November 24, 1999.

--also, last I heard, saudi arabia (desert, sunshine, etc.), spends more per capita annualy on solar research and implementation than any other country. Gee, wonder if they know something there?-

--different topic, any bets when all the lears, gulfstreams and boeings split from airfields there on one way, open ended flights? I'm guessing a heap 0 princes, princelings, hangers-on, and other assorted types take a LONG vacation sometime next month. They got oil, but they ain't got WATER. At least not for very long they don't. Lets see how smug they are then. OPEC, schmopek, no water=no working=no money=people really po'ed=royals get their come uppance, at least the ones who stupidly stay home=goat herding, not the worlds biggest cash cow

I can't believe the venality of rich people, they always assume that everything will be OK for them......that somehow, they are "above" all ...this....that only effects the slaves and peons.

wouldn't bother me one whit all those "royals' fall on their butt.nope. --zog, the guy who dislikes the concept of "royalty" and HATES people who engage in human slavery and somehow maintain that they are "civilized" and "cultured"

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), November 24, 1999.