WORLD ACHIEVEMENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 146, 23 May 1939, Page 9

WORLD ACHIEVEMENT

A RIVER OF OIL. It was in 1934 that the vast undertaking which now brings oil from Iraq to the Mediterranean was completed, King Ghazi turning a tap at Kirkuk, 150 miles north of Bagdad, and by so doing setting a river of oil flowing along 1100 miles One of the outstanding achievements of modern times, the Iraq pipeline carries oil at a speed of 2.} miles an hour (the entire journey across the deserts taking three weeks) from the. oil-field at Kirkuk to Haditha on the Euphrates where it divides, one branch crossing Syria to Tripoli, the other eorssing the Syrian desert and Palestine to Haifa. This huge undertaking has cost about £10,000,000, but it conveys 4,000,000 gallons of oil to the oiltankers. The laying of the pipeline (each pipe 12 inches wide) was a remarkable engineering feat. All the sections wore electrically welded, and the line crosses four of the most famous rivers in the world—the Euphrates, Tigris, Orontes, and Jordan. The late King Feisal was an enthusiastic supporter of the scheme, and Sir John Cadman was one of the guiding spirits in the undertaking. Here and there arc 12 pumping' stations driving the oil along the pipes, eacli like a fortress; and along the whole length are patrols keeping watch on the valuable line —though attacks are often successful. Like a vast switchback is this eolossol line, rising 3000 feet above sea-level, sinking 900 feet below sealevel in the valley of the Jordan. But for this river of oil. the immense wells at Kirkuk would ho almost useless. With it they spout wealth every minute.—(L)