The old crude oil pipeline Tapline became a national industrial heritage site as the first industrial site to be officially registered in Saudi Arabia. Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, the Saudi Minister of Culture, made the announcement yesterday, extending his thanks to the minister of energy and Saudi Aramco for their quick response after they immediately halted the work on removing Tapline.
King Abdulaziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia, ordered the construction of the Tapline pipeline in 1947 so that oil could be transported from eastern Saudi Arabia to the Lebanese Mediterranean coast. The cities of Arar and Tarif in the northern border region did not merely resemble Riyadh and Jeddah only, but rather came to look like miniature versions of American cities, bearing particular resemblance to Texas.
Dr. Ibrahim Al-Munif, in his book Oil ... The boom ... Wealth, recounts the Tapline’s history and its industrial and social significance in northern Saudi Arabia, as well as how it was shaped by a group of American engineers and technicians and the tribes and nomads of the northern border region. He gives a comprehensive explanation of its impactions on Saudi Arabia and the region’s future. It was momentous indeed; as Majid Al-Mutlaq, the president of the northern border region literary club, explained in a previous interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, the pipeline became 1664 kilometers long, 1300 of it inside Saudi territory. Several pumping stations measured distances were required to prevent the flow from weakening, so the company has established seven stations, starting from Qaisumah in the east and ending with Tarif in the west.
Specialized engineers and support workers were stationed at each of them to ensure the pipelines’ protection and smooth functioning.
The ministry of culture initiated the Industrial Heritage competition in July 2019, the first of its kind in the history of Saudi Arabia. It sheds light on the sites of the Saudi industrial renaissance and raises awareness about this type of heritage, which encompasses humanity’s post-industrial revolution social and engineering achievements.
