Oman–Saudi Arabia border

Oil and Buraimi

When American and British oil companies began exploring Arabia in the 1930s and 1940s, few borders existed; tribes owed allegiance to rulers, and concessions were loosely defined. After disputes over Aramco survey parties working in what Britain considered Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia claimed the Buraimi oasis and much of Abu Dhabi, and the border with Oman was undefined.^[2]

In August 1952 about 50 Saudi men arrived in Hamasa, one of the oasis villages that owed allegiance to the Sultan of Oman. Britain stopped the Sultan and the Imam of Oman from expelling them; there followed a blockade by the Trucial Oman Scouts, a failed arbitration in Geneva, and the forcible removal of the Saudis and their supporters in October 1955.^[2]

A border at last

On 20 March 1990 King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and Sultan Qaboos of Oman signed an agreement establishing an international boundary between their countries for the first time. It links straight-line segments from Umm az Zumul, the eastern end of the Saudi–UAE line agreed in 1974, to a point at 19°N, 52°E, which is also where the Oman–Yemen boundary of 1992 ends. Ratifications were exchanged in Riyadh on 21 May 1991, and an international company chosen by both countries was to survey and mark the line.^[1]

“Recent border agreements have established international boundaries between Oman and Saudi Arabia and between Oman and Yemen for the first time.”^[1]