This Day in History (1997): Shaybah Project Pipe Delivery Begins

From the March 5, 1997, edition of The Arabian Sun

Saudi and Italian manufacturers have begun delivery of pipe that will link the remote Shaybah oil field in the Rub' al-Khali desert to Abqaiq Plants.

The 638-kilometer (393-mile) pipeline is a key part of the fast-track project to bring 500,000 barrels per day of Arabian Extra Light Crude oil from the Shaybah field on line in mid-1998.

The orders to manufacture the pipe and epoxy coat it were processed by the Purchasing Department in Dhahran.

The accelerated schedule for the Shaybah development effort dictated that 60 percent of the 117-centimeter (46-inch) pipe for the project could be manufactured in the Kingdom. The National Pipe Company in al-Khobar has begun delivery of that portion of the pipe.

Aramco Overseas Company B.V. in Ledien, the Netherlands, is supervising the inspection and will expedite the shipment of the remainder of the pipe, weighing 77,700 metric tons, from Italy. The first shipment of 8,000 tons of pipe was loaded onto the M/V Leader in Tranto, Italy, on Jan. 28, with the rest of the shipments scheduled through May.

All of the pipe coating for the project is being performed by Al-Qahtani Pipe Coating Terminal in Dammam and Arabian Pipe Coating Company in Jubail.

Caption for top photo: J.R. "Roel" Timmer, Aramco Overseas company B.V. purchasing agent, was present in Taranto, Italy, on Jan. 28, when the first 8,000-ton shipment of pipe was loaded onto the M/V Leader.

On this date

2012 — Tropical Storm Irina kills more than 75 as it hits Madagascar

1982 — The Soviet space probe Venera 14 lands on Venus

1981 — The ZX81, one of the first British home computers, is launched by Sinclair Research

1970 — The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons goes into effect after ratification by 43 countries

1963 — Country music stars Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas, and their pilot, Randy Hughes, are killed in a plane crash in Camden, Tennessee

1958 — English-Australian singer-songwriter Andy Gibb is born in Stretford, Lancashire

1953 — Soviet leader Joseph Stalin dies in Moscow after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage four days earlier

1872 — George Westinghouse patents the air brake

1860 — Parma, Tuscany, Modena, and Romagna vote in referendums to join the Kingdom of Sardinia

1836 — Samuel Colt patens the first production-model revolver, the .34 caliber

1616 — Nicolaus Copernicus’s book "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres" is added to the Index of Forbidden Books some 73 years after it was first published