LONG PIPE-LINE IN IRAQ

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21296, 16 October 1934, Page 11

LONG PIPE-LINE IN IRAQ

OIL TO MEDITERRA

NEAN

BRITISH AND FRENCH

BRANCHES AVOIDING SI'EZ CANAL (t'NITEI) I'l'.ESfl ASSOCIATION--!;!' KLICTKIO TELECHUrii— COPTRICKT.I (Received October 15, 10.40 p.m.) LONDON, October 15. A pipe-line 620 miles long from the Iraq oilfields through British mandated territory to Haifa was opened yesterday. It completes a £10,000,000 scheme to obtain oil from Iraq without carrying it through the Suez Canal in tankers The line starts from Kirkuk, in the area administered by the Iraq Petroleum Company. A double line of piping runs 150 miles into the desert of Haditha, where it branches, one line going through French mandated territory to Tripoli, the other to Haifa.

The pipe-line has a total length of 1200- miles, crosses the Tigris, Euphrates, and Jordan, and is capable of taking 4,000,000 tons of oil a year.

About 40 wells are already in action in the Iraq field.

More than £15.500,000 has been invested in the Iraq oilfields and the pipe-lines connecting those fields with the Mediterranean since the granting of the concession in 1924.

| The capital of the Iraq Petroleum i Company has been increased to i £6,500,000 and that of Mediterranean j Pipeline, Ltd., to approximately i £9,178,000 at par. | Up to October 31. 1933. no less than i £12,000,000 had been expended on exploration, development, and construction, more than hair this sum being for the pipe-line from the fields to the Mediterranean. ' The -initial production area is a rectangle 10 miles long by two miles wide, the centre of which is the Baba Gurgur crest immediately north-west of Kirkuk. In 1933 three new wells were completed and one partially drilled. Of the three completed wells, two are producers equal to the best in the field, whilst the third is an oil and waterlevel observation well. Production in 1933 was confined to the company's operation requirements, fuel for drilling, and oil for pipe-line purposes. Each section has a degassing station comprising two high-pressure oil and gas separators and two low-pressure separators, the former being in the form of gas-light tanks 50ft in dinmeter by 40 ft high. Each well will (low to its respective degassing station through the high-pressure and low-pressure separators, and thocc for measurement to the tank farm collecting station at Hasar. All the flow lines from wells to degassing stations have been laid, also the lines for conveying oil from these stations to (he lank farm. At two of the three degassing stations, at Shurau and Baba Gurgur. the low-pressure separators with necessary pipe, valves, and sq on. are in course of construction. Koads and Houses Roads necessary for carrying mil the construction work and for use when this is finished have been made, and a small residential area, comprising 10 bungalows, has been laid out at Kir- I kuk. near the company's offices and i workshops. I Work on the pipe-line continued I throughout the year at high pressure. ! The welding of the double line from ' Kirkuk to Haditha and of two single I lines thence to Tripoli and Haifa re-i spectively, was completed on Novem- I ber 19. ; Much employment has been given ' to the tribes. COOO Iraqis having been employed on the eastern section of the I line during October. * The company has imported 18(i,000 tons of material for pipe-line construction, of which more than 87,000 tons had passed through the port of Basrah by November 15 last. An extensive programme of water drilling has been carried out along the pipe-line, and seven wells of varying quality have been struck. Very wisely, the company has spared no effort to ensure the physical wellbeing of its employees. A medical officer and two assistants are stationed at Haditha, and along the whole length ot construction an assistant medic/il officer is to be found wherever a gang j is operating. i The excellence of the medical and I sanitary arrangements is evident by i the complete absence of anv epidemic ! disease among the large numbers cm- I ployed. I