This Day in History (1980): Biggest RT Storage Tank Now Nearing Completion

From May 7, 1980, edition of The Arabian Sun

The biggest storage tank ever to be constructed at the Ras Tanura Terminal is now nearing completion. Designed to hold natural gasoline produced at the natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionation plant at Ju’aymah, the tank has a capacity of 1.5 million barrels, making it equal in size to Aramco’s biggest crude tanks — the five 1.5 million-barrel tanks that have been constructed at Ju’aymah.

“The only notable difference between this tank and the crude tanks is that the natural gasoline tank does not have a so-called belly band, a reinforced steel belt needed to contain crude oil, which has a density of .89. Natural gasoline has a density of .66,” said Fred Badger of the Terminal Operations Division of Northern Area Operations Engineering.

Like the Ju’aymah tanks, the new tank has a concrete foundation, with side walls composed of eight courses of steel plates, in this case ranging in thickness from 1.75 inches at the bottom, the area of greatest stress, to .9 inches at the top.

Like the crude tanks too, the new tank is fitted with a 2.5 million-pound floating roof — a design that minimizes vaporizing space, and thereby helps eliminate fumes.

According to Sevket Torpis of Gas Projects, all construction work on the new tank is now complete and the tank should be handed over to the Terminal Department sometime this month. The addition of the new tank will bring the total natural gasoline storage capacity at the Ras Tanura Terminal to 4.5 million barrels. Most natural gasoline shipped from the North Pier is produced at the Ras Tanura Refinery, but natural gasoline to be stored in the new tank will be supplied from the new NGL fractionation plant at Ju’aymah.

“It was decided to build the tank at Ras Tanura rather than Ju’aymah because all of our natural gasoline loading facilities are located at Ras Tanura Terminal,” said Aziz Jameel, manager of the Terminal Department.

Also on this date

2000 — Vladimir Putin is inaugurated as president of Russia

1999 — Pope John Paul II travels to Romania, becoming the first pope to visit a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054

1994 — Edvard Munch's painting The Scream is recovered undamaged after being stolen from the National Gallery of Norway in February

1992 — The Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its first mission

1954 — The Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat and a Viet Minh victory

1952 — The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey Dummer

1946 — Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded

1945 — World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day

1832 — Greece's independence is recognized by the Treaty of London

1824 — Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th (Choral) Symphony, often regarded as his greatest work, premieres in Vienna

558 — In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses, twenty years after its construction. Justinian I immediately orders that the dome be rebuilt