MODERN MARVEL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 255, 25 September 1935, Page 2

MODERN MARVEL.

GREAT OIL LINE. ENGINEERING IN IRAQ. WELLINGTON, Sept. 24. For nearly a year the Iraq Petroleum Company, operating wells at Kirkuk, Iraq (the ancient name of which is Mesopotamia), has been exporting crude oil from its two terminal ports, Haifa, in Palestine, and Tripoli, in Syria, at the rate of 10,000 tons a day. With the financial interests in this company divided between England, France, and America, not to mention the royalty tor the Government of Iraq, it can easily be visualised that this amazing business is one of the first importance in Europe, lot' other than the wells of Russia, these are the nearest sources _of supply of crude oil for Western Europe. Behind the mere fact that the laying of the 1150-mile pipe lines cost £10,000,000 lies a fascinating story. It was told by Mr G. C. Clandge, one of the engineers of the company who was in charge of the Mafrak section oi the line in trans-Jordania, and who is now in Wellington. Mr Clandge, ail Englishman, who played for a Midland county against the 1905. All Blacks, regards the laying of this line across the deserts of Iraq, Syria, and Palestine, as one of the wonders of the world, for in spite of all that was said of the possible interference with the work, and the difficulties to be overcome in attempting to entrench two pipe lines nearly 7 1200 miles in length, the work went on smoothly from beginning to end. Mr Claridge related that there were only four wells at Kirkuk, which were held on a 99 years’ lease by the company. In the United States the usual practice was to sink many bores and erect many derricks in a confined area, with the result that most of were “on the pump.” liut in Kirkuk the upward flow was so strong that it was not necessary to use pumps; it simply gushed up under considerable pressure, and, under control, was led to the pipes which conducted it across a desolate desert country to the Mediterranean ports mentioned. The great task was to lay the pipe line, and when it is stated that that work was commenced in September, 1932, and completed in October, 1934, one can realise the immensity of the task. DIFFICULT COUNTRY.

There were two pipe lilies, Mr Clarities explained. These were 12-inch so.ui-drawn steel pipes, each 3rtt in length, and weighing three-quarters of a ton. They had to he laid three feet underground in order to protect them from the great surface heat m the summer time. Mr Olaridge has a photograph showing snow-covered ground iu the winter. Ihe two pipes were laid alongside one another as tar as tiaditha. a distance of about 18U miles, then they separated, one going northwest and the other south-west. The northernmost pipe line then ran roughly parallel to tne Euphrates and then on through the undulating desert lands of Syria (a country that was held under mandate by France) to Tripoli, on the low-lying coast of the Mediim.aiiean. The southern line travelled ....rough trans-Jordania and Palestine to Haifa. There were no great surface diihieuities on the northern route, the highest point being some 3100 feet above sea level, bun the going was very rough along the southern route, which traversed the valley of the Jordan. The pipes had to be laid through a patch of country the surface of which was nothing hut lumps of lava or vitric rock and dust. There was a patch of about a hundred square miles of this formidable lavacovered country, said to have been erupted 12,000,000 years ago. As exemplifying the ups and downs of life in this country tiie pipe line in crossing the Jordan valley took off from one side at a height of 1700- feet above sea-level and went down and down to a depth of 680 feet below sea-level, when it had to climb to a height of 1700 feet on the other side. The normal pressure in the pipe was about 7501 b to the square inch, but in the Jordan Valley it rose to 10001 b. To relieve this pressure the pipe had to he reduced in diameter to eight inches in order to act as a brake, then into two 10-inch pipes and finally back to 12-inch. To drive the oil through theie were twelve pump stations, each litted with six sets of 500 horse-power Diesel engines, driving double-action pumps. These stations were situated at intervals along the line averaging 60 miles, but in one instance the distance between stations was 167 miles, and in another 100 miles, much depending on the contour of the country traversed. At these stations there were half a dozen Englishmen, who had their own bungalows, their own hospitals, armouries, and forts. These forts were quite strongly built, and on a pinch everyone concerned at the post could shelter there. The walls were slit for machine-gun fire, and all the stores were kept within the fort.