From Energy Daily, news that Saudi Arabia is upgrading the Shaybah oil production facility in the country’s barren southeastern Rub’ al Khali desert, as part of an agenda to bolster its already dominant role supplying more oil to the world than any other country.  As the article notes: 

“…barrel for barrel, there’s more oil below the red sand dunes of Shaybah than in all of Mexico or Canada — the two biggest oil suppliers to the United States — or each of the four smallest members of OPEC. Home to the largest oil reserves on Earth, the kingdom’s production of 8.8 million barrels per day is around 2 million less than its capacity… Its goal to increase production capacity by another 1.5 million bpd by 2009, to 12.5 million bpd, will add to the political and economic weight of its throne.

“…below the barren sand are 19 billion of Saudi Arabia’s 264 billion barrels of proven reserves and 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Shaybah currently produces at least 500,000 barrels per day of high-quality crude from “one of the most remote and isolated areas in the whole world…”