ABSTRACT
KNOWLEDGE of the mineral resources of Sa'udi Arabia is extremely scanty, but the chief minerals at present being exploited are petroleum, gold, rock~salt, and gypsum.
California a concession agreement to explore for, prospect for, and to produce petroleum within the kingdom of Sa'udi Arabia. The agree~ ment covered most of the eastern part of the country. The company, known as the California Arabia Standard Oil Company, or Aramco, after performing much exploratory and geological work throughout the area of the agreement, announced the production of oil in com~ mercial quantities in March 1938 from the Dammam field in the province of Al Basa, about 5 miles inland from Al Khobar on the Persian Gulf opposite Bahrein island. By the end of 1944 thirty-eight wells had been drilled, resulting in the discovery of two more productive fields, at Abqaiq and Abu Hadriya, which with the Dammam field have an estimated productive capacity of 140,000 barrels per day. The producing wells at Abqaiq and Abu Hadriya have been shut in, awaiting the development of transport facilities. The Dammam field supplies the refinery of the Bahrein Petroleum Company, Ltd., an associated company on Bahrein island, with 37,500 barrels of crude oil per day, as well as meeting the requirements of Aramco's refinery at Ras TannUra (3,000 barrels per day). The Ras Tannura refinery is connected by a IO-inch pipe-line with the Dammam field, about 40 miles away. It produces kerosene, fuel oil, and gasoline, and supplies the requirements of the Sa'udi Arabian Government as well as those of Aramco's operations. A new refinery with a capacity of 50,000 barrels per day was under construction at Ras TannUra in 1944, and addi~ tional pipe-lines were to be constructed from the Dammam field. Crude oil from the Dammam field is transported to Bahrein island by a combination of pipe-lines and barges, but a pipe-line, under construction in 1944, from the Dammam field to the Bahrein refinery would allow the transport of 60,000 barrels per day.
