to keep the oil moving for the hundreds of miles it takes to cross the Kingdom pipeline is to get the oil closer to the Western Hemisphere

Transcription

1 above: Pump station sensors check for rust, corrosion, leaks and pressure dropoffs and buildups. These pump stations ensure a smooth and continuous flow of oil. right: Smaller pipelines (like this one in Shaybah) run from the individual oil fields to Abqaiq, which is the central point of the vast and intricate pipeline network. Almost like a spider s web, the pipelines weave through the Kingdom, crisscrossing and intersecting. Tankers transport crude oil and refined petroleum products from Saudi Arabia to customers all over the world. below: Shipping crude oil to Europe 54 ENERGY TO THE WORLD Pipelines Have you ever seen a pipeline running through the desert? Saudi Aramco uses these pipelines to transport the oil overland from place to place (natural gas, compressed into liquid form and called NGL, travels in large tankers requires long voyages. In the late 40s, the company began constructing a pipeline shortcut to the Mediterranean Sea. When it was completed in 1950, the Trans-Arabian Pipeline, or Tapline (seen here, running through the desert) was, at 1,729 kilometers (1,067 miles), the longest pipeline ever built. In the early 1990s, the Gulf War prompted the shutdown of Tapline s last existing route. The challenges don t end once the oil has reached the Kingdom s ports on the Red Sea. Many crude oil tankers are too large to go through the Suez Canal. See how this one Aramco built the first major Saudi Arabian pipeline in the 1950s. It was called the Trans-Arabian Pipeline, or Tapline, and it ran northward from the Kingdom s eastern oil-producing fields, through Jordan and Syria, ending in the Lebanese port of Sidon. By 1975, Tapline was mostly shut down, and in the early 1980s, Saudi Arabia constructed a shorter, more technologically advanced pipeline that runs underground from Abqaiq 55 in its own, separate pipeline). Saudi Arabia is bordered by the Arabian Gulf on the east and the Red compares in size to a row of houses. So, a pipeline was built from Egypt s Red Sea coast, westward across westward to Yanbu on the Red Sea. This system included a pipeline for transporting NGL. Sea on the west. Even though most of the Kingdom s oil fields are in the eastern part of the country, much of the oil is sent west across the northern Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea. Just as we need gas stations to have our cars serviced and to fill up on fuel, Saudi Aramco built pump stations along the length of the pipelines Arabian Desert to ports on the Red Sea. One reason for the trans- to keep the oil moving for the hundreds of miles it takes to cross the Kingdom pipeline is to get the oil closer to the Western Hemisphere Kingdom. Spaced about 100 kilometers (62 miles) apart, the stations are where some countries in Europe and the Americas, both major equipped with their own power supplies and sophisticated instruments consumers of oil, are located. for detecting problems in the pipelines.

2 adel a. al-sadoun, harbor pilot It was my dream to work for the world s largest oil company, says Captain Adel A. Al-Sadoun. He fulfilled his dream when he came to work for Saudi Aramco as a harbor pilot in Harbor pilots have the difficult and demanding task of steering the enormous tankers safely to and from the loading berths (docks) where they pick up their cargos of crude oil and refined products. (Harbor pilots take over from ship captains, who steer the tankers on the open seas, once they near the berths.) Harbor pilots must know much more than just how to park a very large ship in a small space, however. They must understand the seabed, area geography, ocean tides, weather conditions and the ships themselves. To learn these skills, I attended the Arab Maritime Transport Academy for four years after high school and graduated as a second officer, says Al-Sadoun. Two years later, I earned my chief officer certificate and spent the next five years on ships plying the world s sea lanes to gain the necessary experience to join Saudi Aramco. To keep his skills sharp and stay current with rapidly changing technology, Al-Sadoun says the company has sent him to various training courses, the Ship Handling Simulator Course and developmental assignments outside the Kingdom. To be a harbor pilot you have to draw upon all of your talents and work with intelligence and common sense. There is no place for inaccuracy. Any wrong move could lead to disaster. above: Everybody has exceptional skills, says Al-Sadoun. To be successful in their lives or careers, young people should explore those skills and develop a plan and a goal. They should always think creatively and never give up. Confidence is the key. below: The harbor pilot also has to stay in contact with as many as four tugboat pilots, directing them as they help guide the giant tanker into the right spot at the berth for loading its cargo. The berthing procedure alone can take several hours. ospas above: Advanced technology gives OSPAS workers a view of everything going on at each point in the petroleum process, as it happens. This way, they can notify port captains if there is a problem at the port or the pump station monitor if the pipeline flow should be adjusted. OSPAS stands for Oil Supply Planning and Scheduling. It s the department that monitors and controls the production and delivery of all of Saudi Aramco s products. OSPAS is a constant presence in Saudi Aramco oil and gas production, tracking the crude oil and gas as they move through the pipelines, the refined petroleum as it leaves the refineries, and all products that are shipped from the marine ports. Employees from every division of the company are recruited to work for OSPAS. A successful soccer team is made up of players who have different skills some good at scoring, some at passing, some at goalkeeping. The OSPAS team has the same kind of diversity. It includes people from engineering, exploration, sales and marketing, computer systems and more. 56 Monitoring petroleum is a big part of OSPAS workers jobs, but they also spend a lot of time planning both for the long-term and for emergencies, should they arise. The OSPAS Operations Coordination Center (OCC) in Dhahran is a showcase of modern technology. Its centerpiece is a gigantic curved electronic display wall, about 3 meters (10 feet) high by 67 meters (220 feet) long, where workers can see everything from the number of tankers currently docked at Yanbu Terminal (and even which of those tankers have harbor pilots on board!), to the amount of crude oil moving through a particular section of pipeline at that moment, to live video of a remote pump station in Shu bah. Esam Al-Eissa works in OSPAS and explains the importance of the ability to monitor petroleum processes in real time. You ve heard of learning by your mistakes? Well, that golden rule doesn t apply here. We make a mistake, the company could lose billions of dollars and people could be injured. Instead, Al-Eissa and his coworkers do their best to make sure mistakes do not happen. The OSPAS OCC increases the communication among all workers in Saudi Aramco. Or, as OSPAS manager Adel Al-Dossary puts it, We are the think tank of Saudi Aramco s daily hydrocarbon management.

3 Shipping Finally, after the petroleum has been found, removed from the ground, processed and refined, it must be sent to its final destination to consumers all around the world! Oil Tank 1 Energy PETROLEUM: to the World THE RAW MATERIAL A good rule of thumb for oil tankers is: the bigger the better. Yes, smaller Oil Tank ships will always be needed to navigate shallow harbors and small ports. But in general, it costs much less to build and operate one large, heavy ship than two smaller, lighter ones. In addition, to navigate rough seas (like those off the Cape of Good Hope at Africa s southern tip), a ship must be large and heavy, or it will be swamped by the high waves. Oil tankers are classed primarily by their weight. The largest are called Ultra-Large Crude Carriers (ULCCs), which are 300,000 metric tons or more, and Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), which range from 160,000 metric tons to nearly 300,000 metric tons. These enormous ships can range in length from 200 meters (656 feet) to more than Saudi Aramco ships about 3 million barrels of crude oil and half a million barrels of refined products every day, and all of it travels aboard huge tankers. 400 meters (1,312 feet) as long as four or five soccer fields placed end-to-end! Double Hull quick quiz: If a standard city bus is about 15 meters (49 feet) long, how many buses could you park end-to-end on a VLCC tanker (350 meters/1,148 feet long)? How about on the deck of a ULCC (400 meters/1,312 feet long)? above: It is widely believed that doublehulled ships are less likely to have oil spills if the outer hull is damaged (because there s still another wall to protect the oil). In fact, several nations are now adopting laws requiring tankers entering their waters to have double hulls. Other size classes include the Suezmax (the name refers to the maximum-size tanker that will pass through the Suez Canal) and the Panamax (named for the maximum size that will pass through the locks of the Panama Canal). Newer tankers are usually built with double hulls. In single-hulled tankers, the hull, or outer skin, of the ship is also the outer wall of the petroleum storage tanks. But in double-hulled tankers, the storage tank has its own walls that are not attached to the ship s hull, which means an additional layer of protection against spills. answer: 23 buses will fit on a VLCC tanker; 26 buses will fit on a ULCC.

4 science experiment: it floats! Saudi Aramco ships its petroleum products all over the world in supertankers. Did you ever wonder how these huge vessels can float as well as a feather? This activity will help explain. what you ll need: 1 block of solid wood 1 plastic cap from a bottle Bathtub or sink filled with water Small rock 2 pieces of aluminum foil (heavy-duty if you have it) Rolling pin 1. Hold the wood block in one hand and place the plastic cap in the other. Which feels heavier? Do you think the wood will sink or float? What about the plastic cap? 4. Take the rock and place it on the water. What happens? Vela International Marine Limited Petroleum shipping has come a long way since the first cargo of Saudi crude oil left Ras Tanura in In 1984, Aramco established an additional business, Vela International Marine Limited, to develop 5. Take a piece of aluminum foil and shape it into a little boat. Place it on top of the water. Does it float? 2. Put both of them on the water to test your predictions. What happens? 3. Put both of them under the water. What happens now? 6. Take another piece of aluminum foil and roll it into a little ball. Use a rolling pin to press all of the air out of the ball. Place it on top of the water. Does it float? If it does, keep pressing the air out with the rolling pin until it sinks. Do you notice that the wood block is partly submerged in the water? In order to float, it has to displace (push out of the way) the amount of water equal to its weight, filling that space in with wood. The plastic cap displaces much less water because it is lighter. The rock sinks to the bottom because it is small and heavy. It can t displace enough water to equal its weight. The same goes for the aluminum foil. When it is spread out into a boat shape, it is large enough to displace enough water to equal its weight. But when you press all of the air out of it with the rolling pin, it becomes smaller and heavier, and therefore sinks to the bottom. Think about the supertankers you have seen. How spread out is their weight? How would they fare in this experiment? shipping for its products. above: The Socal tanker D. G. Scofield (seen here) picked up the first shipment of Saudi oil at Ras Tanura in top: Vela began with four second-hand tankers. Now, it is one of the largest oil shipping companies in the world. Dhaifallah A. F. Al-Utaibi, who worked for Saudi Aramco as a senior vice president and as the president of Vela for five years, remembers what it was like in the early days. One day I was called to the [Aramco] president s office. And they said, We ve selected you to run Vela. I said, What is Vela? They said, Our shipping company. I said, I don t have a clue about the shipping business. They said, We have full confidence in your capability. Al-Utaibi learned fast because he went on to build a world-class shipping company. Under his leadership, Vela grew rapidly, completed a construction program to build 15 VLCCs, took over the in-house shipping management, and achieved a high level of quality and shipping performance. 61

5 hassan jannah, computer operations specialist As the world s largest producer of oil, Saudi Aramco relies on a wide range of professionals to ensure that its operations run smoothly. Twenty-six-year-old Hassan Jannah is one of those people. As a computer operations specialist in the company s EXPEC Computer Center, Jannah is a key link between field operations and Saudi Aramco s headquarters in Dhahran. Jannah was born in the Eastern Province but raised in Jiddah. After finishing high school, he returned to the Eastern Province after enrolling in Saudi Aramco s College Preparatory Program (CPP) in Jannah then went on to successfully study computer engineering at the University of Manchester, UK. When Jannah first joined Saudi Aramco, he worked in IT support in the Human Resources Department. His talent was soon recognized, and within two years of being at the company he was working on one of the largest computer network upgrade projects undertaken by the EXPEC Computer Center. above: My work environment is very challenging, says Jannah. We have to come up with solutions to problems pretty fast so we re certainly kept on our toes. Jannah now makes sure that field engineers are given the right technical support to produce crucial assessments of oil wells. I support engineers and managers in making operational and strategic business decisions by providing them access to reports on the performance of the wells. These reports are shown to everyone from company managers to the Ministry of Petroleum, he said. 62 Jannah believes his current role enables him to positively affect and shape the future of Saudi Arabia. I know what I do is affecting the economy of the country and I am also helping to save the company money. This gives me great satisfaction I m positively contributing to my country. Jannah has completed numerous company sponsored training programs but also believes having initiative is crucial for professional development and success. People should be prepared to learn by themselves. I got my technical skills through a combination of training and self-learning. You have to invest in yourself and push yourself professionally.