In-house life
David Kultgen has practised in-house in Saudi Arabia on and off since the 1970s, almost immediately following his graduation from law school in the US. A veteran in-houser at oil giant Saudi Aramco, he has recently overseen a huge transformation and expansion of the company’s legal function.
After joining the old Aramco [the Arabian American Oil Company] in New York after graduation from law school in 1973, I lived in Saudi Arabia from 1974 to 1980, London from 1980 to 1982, Houston from 1982 to 1989 and then back to the Kingdom just before the First Gulf War. The experience has been a professionally and personally rewarding one.
Over 90% of the Saudi government’s revenues come directly or indirectly from taxes and royalties on Saudi Aramco’s oil and gas production, plus cash distributions (dividends) from the company. The full impact of the drop in oil prices remains to be seen and will depend on the time it takes for them to return to something approaching mid-2014 levels. Saudi Aramco revenues have been halved since last summer as a result.
