Energy to the World: the Story of Saudi Aramco Volume 1
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ENERGY TO THE WORLD: TO ENERGY ENERGY TO THE WORLD: THE STORY OF SAUDI ARAMCO OF SAUDI THE STORY THE STORY OF SAUDI ARAMCO VOLUME 1 VOLUME 1 VOLUME www.saudiaramco.com J ENERGY TO THE WORLD : VOLUME ONE TITLE K VOLUME ONE Energy to the World The Story of Saudi Aramco II ENERGY TO THE WORLD : VOLUME ONE VOLUME ONE Energy to the World The Story of Saudi Aramco Shown in this 1937 photo are Dammam Well No. 1, right, the first oil well drilled in Saudi Arabia, and Dammam Well No. 7, the discovery well. Contents Copyright First Edition Volume One Volume Two © 2011 by Aramco Services Company Printed in 2011 Preface xi Illustration: Saudi Arabia viii ISBN All rights reserved. No part of this book Illustration: Saudi Arabia xiv 1 National Resources 1 978-1-882771-23-0 may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or 1 Prospects 1 2 Boom Time 27 Library of Congress by any means, electronic, mechanical, 2 Negotiations 33 3 Transformation 67 Control Number photocopying, recording or otherwise, 200922694 without the written permission of 3 Reading the Rocks 59 4 Rising to the Challenge 99 Aramco Services Company, except by 4 The War Years 93 5 Achieving the Vision 131 Written by a reviewer, who may quote a brief Scott McMurray passage for review. 5 Expansion 123 Appendix 168 Produced by 6 Growing Pains 153 A. Upstream 170 The History Factory 7 Balancing Act 189 B. Downstream 184 Chantilly, Virginia, USA List of Abbreviations 215 C. Operations Data 194 Project Coordinators Notes on Sources 216 Company Leadership 204 Theodore J. Brockish, Kyle L. Pakka and Mohammad S. Abu Al-Makarem, Image Credits 220 Acknowledgments 206 Saudi Aramco with special thanks to Index 223 List of Abbreviations 209 Muhammad A. Tahlawi Notes on Sources 210 Published by Aramco Services Company Bibliography 214 Houston, Texas, USA Image Credits 216 www.aramcoservices.com Index 219 Designed by Pivot Design, Inc. www.pivotdesign.com Printed by Altraiki Printing Company Dammam, Saudi Arabia VI ENERGY TO THE WORLD : VOLUME ONE This book would not have been possible without the support of the following members of Saudi Aramco management: Ali I. Al-Naimi Abdallah S. Jum‘ah, Khalid A. Al-Falih M. Yusof Rafie, Abdulaziz F. Al-Khayyal Mustafa A. Jalali, Khaled A. Al-Buraik, Khalid I. Abubshait Essam Z. Tawfiq, Nasser A. Al-Nafisee, Khalid K. Al-Mulhim Emad M. Al-Dughaither, Fuad F. Therman, Ziyad M. Alshiha, Tareq M. Al-Ghamdi, Saleh M. Assabti, Mohammed A. Al-Osaimi photo The gasoline treatment plant in the Ras Tanura Refinery, shown in 1948, was symbolic of Aramco’s rapid growth after World War II and of its emergence as a key player in the global energy industry. PREFACE xi Preface I knew putting Saudi Aramco’s history in perspective was going to be a challenge a few minutes into my 2007 tour of the construction site where now sits the company’s Khursaniyah oil and gas processing complex. That’s when I saw the massive steel storage vessel. One of six tanks on-site designed to hold natural gas liquids (NGL), it was 67.7 meters long and 6.6 meters wide and tipped the scales—had any been large enough to accommodate the submarine-sized cylinder—at 1,050 metric tons. Even though the intense desert sun made the thick steel far too hot to touch, that wasn’t hot enough for its intended purpose. To withstand the rigors of hydrocarbon processing, the metal required heat-treating to 670 degrees Celsius for seven days. As hard as it was to imagine that kind of intense heat for so long, it was just as difficult to realize that, in order to speed delivery schedules, the vessels had actually been baked on-site in gigantic gas-fired ovens as if they were so many loaves of bread. Impossibly big, impossibly heavy, impossibly hot and impossibly complex—but as I dis- covered during my many visits to Saudi Arabia and in my many conversations with employees, active or retired, Saudi or expatriate, “impossible” has never been in Saudi Aramco’s dictionary. And as impossible as it might seem, the Khursaniyah project was only one of a half-dozen other massive Saudi Aramco oil and gas projects under way simultaneously around the Kingdom at that time. I was standing near the center of the biggest and most expensive peacetime construction program in history, led by the world’s largest petroleum company, designed to increase production capacity levels from the largest proven oil reserves and the fourth-largest gas reserves on the planet. As I was to learn in the course of writing this history, this was just one example of the company’s proud legacy of accomplishments in the petroleum industry. Ultimately, any story of technological achievement gains lasting meaning only when told in the context of the individuals who conceived of and executed these marvels of modern development. The same can be said for nation building. Take away the people and we are left with mere statistics. The story of the evolution of Saudi Aramco and the unparalleled oil and gas resources it has developed, often under extremely trying conditions, is indivisible from the story of the development of Saudi Arabia itself, which was fueled by those very resources. And at the heart of these intertwined tales are the people who led the development of country and company. Saudi sovereigns—the larger-than-life founder of Saudi Arabia known as King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz and his son and the reigning monarch, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King ‘Abd Allah—begin and end our tale because the development of the country’s natural oil and gas resources has followed the vision established by the country’s rulers. Making this vision xii PREFACE PREFACE xiii a reality over the decades has been the responsibility of a cast of thousands of individuals NOTE ON SOURCES With the interest of the general reader in mind, source notes are included from Saudi Arabia and scores of other countries. One thing unites them all, whether they for each chapter at the end of the volume in which the chapter appears. Sources are provided are operators at the Haradh Gas Plant, maintenance workers at the Yanbu‘ crude oil terminal, for major points raised in each chapter, and a list of books used as primary references for each teachers in the company school at Abqaiq or drillers in the Khurais oil field: They all share a chapter is also included. A complete bibliography is in the back of Volume Two. A list of all cur- unique identity as “Aramcons.” This is their story. rent and former employees of Saudi Aramco who were interviewed by The History Factory in Shaping a narrative history inevitably means focusing on the achievements of some at the preparation of this history also is included in the appendix at the end of Volume Two. Unless the expense of others. I have tried to tell the story of Saudi Aramco as accurately and fairly otherwise noted, direct quotes from current or former employees of Saudi Aramco are drawn as possible. In the process, I have given voice to some who were not heard from in earlier from these interviews or interviews conducted by Saudi Aramco employees. histories of the region and era. If at the same time I inadvertently have silenced others, the fault is mine alone. UsE OF HISTORICAL SPELLING FROM SOURCE MATERIAL To retain the sense of authenticity conveyed by original texts, this history uses the original spellings included in source materials that are quoted Scott McMurray directly. Indirect quotes or other references use generally accepted contemporary spellings. ARABIC TRANSLITERATION The transliteration of Arabic into English in this text follows a system used by Saudi Aramco, which closely adheres to a generally accepted system of transliteration from Arabic to English. A few comments about the Arabic language for readers of English: One Arabic consonant that has no counterpart in English is the letter ‘ayn, which is generally represented by an inverted apostrophe (‘). It often appears in personal or place names, such as Al Sa‘ud. When an Arabic word has acquired a common English-language usage, however, the popular form is used: Saudi Arabia instead of Sa‘udi Arabia. Other common Arabic usages bear explaining. The word al- (joined to the following word with a small “a,” unless it begins a sentence or is part of an individual's name) is the definite article and corresponds to the English the. The similar Al (always with a capital “A” and never joined to the following word) means “House (or family) of.” Al Sa‘ud is the name of the ruling family of Saudi Arabia. When naming offspring, ‘abd, or “servant of,” is commonly used to form Arabic personal names such as ‘Abd Allah (“Servant of God”) or ‘Abd al-Rahman (“Servant of the Merciful”). The word ibn, sometimes pronounced bin, means “son of” or “descendant of the House (or family) of,” as in Ibn Sa‘ud. The word abu means “father of.” xiv ILLUSTRATION: SAUDI ARABIA ILLUSTRATION: SAUDI ARABIA xv C A S P I A N S E A Saudi Arabia A E S N A E N A R R E T I IRAQ D E M Turaif Badanah JORDAN Sakaka al-Jawf Dawmat al-Jandal in t Rafha a B l- a i GREAT NAFUD d KUWAIT Tabuk a A W Hafar al-Batin L al-Khafji Qaisumah - Tayma H Safaniya Duba A Hayil A L Nariya S al- Ula - Jubail ‘ A D Ras Tanura A al-Wajh Qatif R i al-Ru Buraydah A Dammam A AL-HIJAZ d m al-Zilfi al-Khobar B a a Unayzah H Dhahran I A W h ‘ Abqaiq N N al- Uqayr G Khaybar ‘ U Hofuf L F G A U L F NAJDad-Dir iyah O Madinah ‘ Riyadh Salwah F ad-Dawadimi O Yanbu‘ AL-HAJAR M al-Kharj Haradh A N Wa di al- UNITED ARAB Sahba SAUDI ARABIA EMIRATES Rabigh Thuwal Layla Jiddah Makkah Tayif I L R as-Sulayyil A E al-Bahah di a H D a l-Da r - K Bishah W wasi L S ‘ ASIR A E B‘ A R U Tathlith OMAN R Abha Khamis Mushayt A F U H Najran ash-Sharawrah D Jazan T U YEMEN A M A A E R S H D N A I A H B A R A SCALE IN KILOMETERS 0 200 J ENERGY TO THE WORLD : VOLUME ONE PROSPECTS 1 CHAPTER ONE Prospects Exploring the Jafura sands, on the northern edge of the Rub‘ al-Khali, 1939.