My husband's first paycheck in 1980 from ARAMCO was $5,000.00/month. He was a mechanical engineer who made $800.00/month here at the time, after taxes.
*****Being an ARAMCO employee ALSO meant paying NO FEDERAL INCOME TAX. Wowsa.
I worked in Yemen a while back. Saudi is hardly the worse, most dangerous place to work. I interviewed for Aramco but it didn’t work out, the timing was bad (Sept 2001).
It isn’t all tax free, but the first $97,600 (in 2013) is tax free.
http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Foreign-Earned-Income-Exclusion