Saudi Arabia's economy is critically dependent on the nation's vast oil reserves, the majority of which are located in the country's Eastern Province. This area is also home to most of Saudi Arabia's Shiite population, which has often been a source of tension between a central government that strongly supports Sunni interests around the world and a minority ideologically closer to the Kingdom's main rival, Iran. Since the Arab Spring began, the Gulf monarchies have been on alert for signs of the unrest that afflicted the governments of North Africa and Syria. With Iran trying to encourage what it called the "Islamic Awakening" facing many of the military-backed secular regimes of the region, countries such as Saudi Arabia increased their security presence and social spending to prevent unrest. The past two years have seen a low-level but sustained series of protests and conflicts between the area's Shiite residents and Riyadh's security forces. Neither side is interested in seeing violence escalate to the levels seen in Libya or Syria, but both are reluctant to acquiesce to the other's demands. For Saudi Arabia, a greater recognition of the region's Shiite identity risks angering powerful Wahhabi religious leaders at home, and for the Shia who make up the bulk of skilled and semi-skilled workers of Saudi Aramco, the region's energy reserves facilitate their relatively high levels of employment. Still, with Iranian competition with Saudi Arabia in the region and the world's dependence on the Eastern Province's oil exports remaining quite high, Shiite unrest in the Kingdom remains a factor of interest to the global energy market.
