Are the main Saudi oilfields in the Sunni or Shia districts? 
Firstly, I don't know where the main Saudi Arabian oilfields are located.
Secondly, the country has a sizeable minority from the Shia Branch of Islam.
If the House of Saud were to fall would the bulk of these resources be
physically located in the predominately Sunni or Shia
districts/regions/provinces?

Hello Grthumongous,

Most of the Saudi oil fields are located in the Shia provinces.

sources:

"They want the administration to tell the Saudis to close down their
Wahhabi missionary activities in the United States and to at least
hint that we might be willing to recognize a breakaway state in the
heavily Shiite eastern provinces where most of the Saudi oil is
found."
source:
US News & World Report, January 2004
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/baroneweb/mb_040108.htm

"The Saudis also fear the effect of Khomeini's volatile fundamentalism
on their own Shiite population, which lives in Al-Hasa, the Eastern
Province from which 60 percent of Saudi oil is pumped."
source:
The World and I Magazine, 1988
http://www.worldandi.com/public/1988/january/cr10.cfm

"...They are practically shut out of the oil-rich eastern provinces,
where Shiites form a majority of the population."
source: NY Times, November 15, 2003
http://www.travelbrochuregraphics.com/extra/same_tactics_ew_target.htm

"Even worse for Saudi security is that the majority of the country's
oil facilities are located in the country's eastern Al-Hasa province,
where 500,000 Shiites live, accounting for nearly one-third of the
province's population. Shiites make up 10 percent of Saudi Arabia's
population and have suffered discrimination for decades from ruling
Sunni Wahabbi officials."
source: Petroleum World, 11/23/2003
http://www.petroleumworld.com/SuF112303.htm


"Various estimates put the Shi?ite population at 5-10 percent of the
17 million native Saudis, and it is possible they constitute a
majority in Al Hasa."
source: Asia Times, "Liberating' Saudi's Shi'ites (and their oil)"  Mar 18, 2004
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FC18Ak03.html


"...Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern Province was not discussed...
...the Eastern Province is home largely to Shiite Muslims and foreign
workers. Saudis of the dominant Wahhabi Sunni sect are "a small and
oppressive minority" in the province,"
source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002-08-08-saudi_x.htm


"The Saudi government is particularly sensitive about Shiite autonomy
because the minority is concentrated in the oil-rich Eastern province,
and any unrest or effort at secession might devastate Saudi oil
production. A year after the war in Iraq, the Saudi regime has reached
out to Shiite leaders."
source:
CHICAGO TRIBUNE, April 11, 2004, hosted by signonsandiego.com
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040411/news_1n11shiites.html

------
search strategy:
"saudi oil is" shiite
"eastern provinces" shia saudi oil
"al hasa" percent saudi oil

I hope this helps.

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Request for Answer Clarification by grthumongous-ga on 03 Jun 2004 00:47 PDT

Juggler, do you have a link to to a showing the general location of
the main oilfields?

I imagine the eastern province of Al-Hasa must be on the Persian Gulf side.

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Request for Answer Clarification by grthumongous-ga on 03 Jun 2004 01:01 PDT

the typo is corrected as 
do you have a link to a map showing....

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Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 03 Jun 2004 01:02 PDT

Yes, the fields are on the Persian Gulf side.

Here's a map of the oil fields of Saudi Arabia:
http://www.gregcroft.com/area1indexmap.ivnu

Here's another one:
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/brcgranier/gmeop/Esg2001/kluwer/Edgell_1992_01.gif

I hope that helps.

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Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 03 Jun 2004 01:11 PDT

Here's another Saudi oil field map (PDF format so the Adobe Acrobat
reader is required):
http://www.judicialwatch.org/SAOilMap.pdf

Here's a map of Saudi Arabia that labels the Al Hasa region:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/atlas_middle_east/saudi_arabia_land.jpg

Excellent. Thanks for the going the extra mile with the last two maps.

Thank you for the tip.
-juggler