Saudi Arabia oil rig resort: New images show sprawling sea theme park

From swimming pools to water slides, this is one unusual take on a traditional theme park

The Rig is inspired by offshore oil platforms

The project involves a 15-hectare theme park

The Rig aims to provide a major boost to the kingdom’s tourism ambitions

The project will be developed by the Oil Park Development Company

An underwater restaurant forms part of the plans

The Rig is being financed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund

While it is unclear how much The Rig will cost, the PIF is estimated to be worth $430 billion

New images show how Saudi Arabia's new oil rig-inspired theme park will look once completed.

From theme park-style water slides, to steel and glass hotel atriums, the development looks set to dazzle amid the kingdom's bid to draw in tourists from far and wide.

At the weekend, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund unveiled a teaser video of what the attraction will look like.

Now images shared with The National show how the three-hotel resort — the location of which has yet to be disclosed — will include a concert venue, zip-lines between platforms and stunning rooms under the sea.

PIF said the resort will contain about 800 rooms and be "inspired by" the country's oil platforms. Officials have not yet said whether the resort will be built from scratch or adapted from one of the dozens of oil platforms off its Arabian Gulf east coast.

If so, the resort is likely to attract Saudis along with attention from visitors in nearby Bahrain and Qatar, which are just an hour away from the east coast oil-city of Dammam, and further afield.

Construction is not expected to start until the second half of 2022.

The Rig, which was announced on Saturday, is the latest tourism and entertainment project designed to reduce Saudi Arabia's reliance on oil.

The kingdom's government recently unveiled plans for major resorts in the Red Sea off the country's west coast.