Trans-Arabian Pipeline

Construction of the Trans-Arabian Pipeline began in 1947 and was mainly managed by the American company Bechtel. Consolidated Steel of Los Angeles was contracted to provide 980 miles of 30 and 31-inch pipe in sections 31 feet long in March 1947 (date of press notice) and the National Tube Company of Pittsburgh, a U.S. Steel subsidiary, for another 70 miles. It was the second pipe contract for Consolidated, then still busy with their plant's inaugural 214 mile 30-inch section of the Texas-California pipeline. Originally the Tapline was intended to terminate in Haifa, which was then in the British Mandate of Palestine. Due to the establishment of the state of Israel, an alternative route through the Syrian Golan Heights and Lebanon was selected, with an export terminal in Sidon. During the Suez Crisis, the Suez canal, the biggest artery for oil, was shut down. The Kirkuk–Baniyas pipeline's three pumping stations on Syrian soil were sabotaged, together with the parallel 12-inch and 16-inch Tripoli line's. Tapline was not affected and continued to transport 340,000 bbl/day. A modernization program was underway, including the installation of four 5,000hp gas turbine auxiliary pumps in existing stations with a planned increase by 90,000 bbl/day. The Saudi government had however forbidden the loading of British and French tankers at Sidon and had cut off the 200,000 barrel per day refinery of the Bahrain Petroleum Company from its supply of Saudi Arabian oil, amounting to 170,000bpd. After the 1967 Six-Day War, the section of the pipeline which runs through the Golan Heights came under Israeli control. The Israelis permitted the pipeline's operation to continue. The pipeline was attacked and damaged by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in May 1969. ==Technical features==

The Trans-Arabian Pipeline was long with a diameter of and 31 inches. When constructed, it was the world's largest oil pipeline system. The initial capacity of the pipeline was (bpd), eventually rising to a maximum capacity of about with the addition of several more pumping stations. While the pipeline was considered groundbreaking and innovative at the time it was built, were it still operational to this day it would be considered somewhat outdated. Most modern long-distance pipelines constructed in the second half of the twentieth century were built to a diameter of or and are able to transport considerably more crude oil per day than the Tapline did in its heyday. The pipeline was supplied from the oil fields near Abqaiq. The Tapline corridor has remained a potential export route for Persian Gulf oil exports to Europe and the United States. At least one analysis has indicated that the transportation cost of exporting oil via the Tapline through Haifa to Europe would cost as much as 40 percent less than shipping by tanker through the Suez Canal. In early 2005, rehabilitation of the Tapline at an estimated cost of US$100 to US$300 million was one of the strategic options being considered by the Jordanian government to meet oil needs. ==Pipeline company==

The pipeline was built and operated by the Trans-Arabian Pipeline Company. It was founded as a joint venture between Standard Oil of New Jersey (now ExxonMobil), Standard Oil of California (Chevron), the Texas Company (better known as Texaco, now a part of Chevron), and Socony-Vacuum Oil Company (now part of ExxonMobil). It eventually became a fully owned subsidiary of Aramco. The company continued operating with no oil being transported until the end of 2002, when Aramco fully closed the Tapline subsidiary. ==Tapline Road==

Tapline Road is the major east-west two lane highway running the width of Saudi Arabia from Turaif, on Saudi Arabia's border with Jordan, in the west, to Qaisumah, on the Persian Gulf, in the east. It was so named because it parallels the Trans-Arabian Pipeline. The Tapline Road was, on average, only 50 kilometers from Saudi Arabia's northern border for a distance of 514 miles or 827.2 kilometers. Initially only a dirt and gravel road used by ARAMCO and the Saudi Government it was widened and paved by 1965 due to use by civilian and commercial traffic. It was incorporated into the Saudi Highway system in 1965 when it was extended into Dammam. Since Tapline Road is a semi-private road mostly maintained by Aramco, and has been assigned the number 6335 until it meets Highway 85 (King Fahd Road) where-after it is maintained by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Transport, it remains Highway 85 until near the Jordanian border where it meets Highway 65, in Qurayyat and crosses the Jordanian Border at Umari and becomes Jordanian Highway 30. Tapline Road/Highway 85 is deemed the longest straight road in the world. ==See also==