Dueling Legacies: Which Sultan Deserves Credit for Oman’s Oil-Driven Development?

Abstract:This article argues that Sultan Sa‘id bin Taymur played a more fundamental role in developing Oman than what is commonly portrayed. With British backing, Sultan Sa‘id centralized control over the contested territories where oil was discovered, despite frequent attacks on exploration teams. When Sa‘id was overthrown in 1970, he relinquished a young but healthy oil sector to his son, Qaboos, paving the way for enormous advances in Omani life. Despite the credit he gets for this transformation, Sultan Qaboos’s initial years in power were marked by mismanagement and declines in production, and poor administration left Oman unable to fully capitalize on the oil price booms of the 1970s.