AMAZING PIPE LINE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 21 February 1935, Page 8

AMAZING PIPE LINE

IRAQ ENGINEERING TRIUMPHS RIVER OF OIL THROUGH 1155 MILES OF FIFES ? Recent cable' messages have referred lo the amazing engineering triumph in Iraq where the skill of a group of British, French and American financiers has succeeded, at, a cost of £10.006.000 in accomplishing what pre-war German a foreign policy was never able to do—r effectively tapping tile wealth of the . Iraq oil-fields. Henceforth a river of e «il running through 1150 miles of pipes t from the fields to the Mediterranean j seaboard will flow at the rate of _ 5,000,000 gallons per day. ; THE ROUTE J r|M • i • .LJie runs direct from Kirj knk, nearly 150 miles north of Baghr dad, across the River Tigris and Euphrates in a double line. At the . Euphrates tin: double lines separate. v The northern arm then runs straight t across the Iraq and Syrian desert to Homs, and thence to the seaport of Tripoli. The southern arm runs through . the deserts of Iraq and Transjordan. ' across the River Jordan, and reaches j the sea at Haifa, In all respects the f. reheme, which was inaugurated with impressive ceremonial a few days ago ranks as one of the greatest works un- ’ dertaken since the war, all the moie ’ sio because it was completed in a climate torrid-hot in summer and icy-cold ’ in winter, with the shifting s'aiids of l file desert rock and lava to contend 5 with. The task lies to the credit of ’ the Iraq Petroleum Company (which is. 1 as has been mentioned, a ’combination • of British, French, and American ini’ tcrests) and of the technicians, craftsr men, and workers without whose lab- ? our and proficiency nothing could have • been achieved. HUGE PROBLEMS ' From the beginning the engineers f were confronted by problems inherent s in any operation ni s ucli arid and rock--1 strewn territory (wrote the London cor--8 respondent of the “Sydney Morning f Herald”). The mere process of digging - tile trenches for the piping was a. lest i' of ingenuity and patience, for neither c nicks nor shovels were of much use. i Pneumatic drills and explosives, with 1 all their attendant equipment, had to he carried in lorries, apart from the J 126,000 toils of 12-inch, lOinch and 8f inch pipes. Ten-wheeled Scammell , tractors were entrusted with much of , ibis work, and they plied, day after - •-lay, each with its 10 tons of pipes, be- - tween the dumps and the gangs of : workmen. As the line grew longer i these journeys sometimes covered more ;han 100 miles of desert. A fleet of 64 t lorries, with capacities of from 10 to t 20 tons, carried tile pipes, and the • company also operated 478 lighter t vehicles of all kinds. . Built on the axiom that a straight l line is the shortest distance between [ two points, the pipe-lilies have been , driven directly across country, up and , ovei hills, down wadis, and across level country (where there was any). Easy gradients and obstacles were never considered. for the plans took no account of topography. A DESERT ARM Y There were occasions when the army of workmen engaged exceeded 15,000 in number, several thousand being at work hundreds of miles from the nearest “base.” The necessity of supplying .water and food was always present, and was adequately met, just as it would have been had the “army” been at war. Medical services, too, had to be provided, and there was the eternal Eroblem of preserving harmony among abour elements representing a dozen different natioualties, speaking a variety of languages. Nor was it a trifle to circumvent Ihe sometimes damaging curiosity of nomad tribes, predisposed to violence, and resentful, from the beginning, of the invasion of their desert territories. The actual police work was performed by the Iraq authorities, a French force from Palrnya, patrols furnished by the Transjordan Government, and the Royal Air Force at Amman and Haifa. The Jordan Valley was a special problem in itself owing to its depth. While the “gateway” east of the valley is over 8500 feet above sea level, the valley floor is 885 feet below sea. level. This necessitated the construction of a relief pumping station oil the banks of the Jordan to relieve the piessure on the line. There is not a pumping station at a lower level than this in the ' world. PUMPING STATIONS Eleven pumping stations now lie between Kirkuk and the termini of the pipe-lines, their important function being to supply power to enable the oil to flow at tiie correct speed, to provide means of checking ihe volume of the ■ flow, and to serve as repair and maintenance bases At each of these eleven points a small staff has been, concentrated, eacli member having a bed-sit-ting room and bathroom, and a share cf a common lounge. The stations arc connected with one another and with ;hc termini by a. telegraph line which, it is expected, will frequently he “interrupted” by destroying Beduins and the forces of nature. To guard against tl*it contingency, therefore, the company has also installed a wireless system by which each station will be able to communicate with tiie outside world and the police and military authorities should there assistance be required. LONELY OUTPOSTS Some, conception of the hardships to be endured on these lonely outposts and of thoso suffered by the artisans and workers during the actual period of construction can he formed by an examination of Ihe climatic conditions. These are terribly severe in all seasons. In mid-winter me temperature is far below freezing point, while in summer it attains a shade tempera In re of 120 degrees. The noon heat often remains between 105 and 120 degrees in the shade for weeks on end. No shelter of any kind exists, and high winds are ve;v common and. at times, continuous. 'lhcse often carry almost- intolerable dust storms.' The rainfall, too, i s very variable. For half the year it is nonexistent, while for the' other half its quantity and occurrence are impossible to predict.