Abqaiq (also Buqayq, Arabic: بقيق buqayq, meaning "father of the sand flies") is a small Saudi Armaco camp in the interior of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia located in the desert southwest of the Dhahran-Dammam-Khobar metropolitan area. Built in the 1940s by ARAMCO nowSaudi Aramco, Abqaiq had a population of approximately 1,950 in 2005.