'File 23/15, 19 I (D 89) Mesopotamia - General' [‎173r] (365/455)

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\ OIL FROM
MOSUL
WORK ON THE
PIPE-LINE
DESERT ENTERPRISE
From Our Special Correspondent
AMMAN, TRANSJORDAN Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan
The construction, which has just been begun
by the Iraq Petroleum Company, of a pipe
line to bring oil from the Mosul oilfield to the
Mediterranean is one of the most important
projects of its kind which have yet been under
taken. It involves laying heavy steel pipes over
a distance of nearly 1,200 miles, a great part
of which lies in rocky and waterless desert.
A little imagination is required to realize
what this means. The pipes, each of which
weighs nearly a ton, have to be hauled by motor-
transport to wherever they have to be laid.
When engineers are constructing a road they
follow the easiest gradients and avoid incon
venient obstacles. Not so the constructors of a
pipe-line. They have to work straight forward.
Consequently the tractors which haul the pipes
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have to go up hill and down dale, over rocks
and into deep nullahs, following a line drawn
on a map. Every 10 yards they have to stop
and drop a pipe, and when their load is finished
they have to go back over the same road and
fetch another. With every trip their journey
lengthens, until they may be plying backwards
and forwards over more than 100 miles
of desert between the base-camp and pipe-
head.
When the pipes are strung, gangs of men dig
a trench in which to bury them. Digging a
trench through solid rock or loose boulders is
no easy job. It calls for explosives and
pneumatic drills. Then come the welding
gangs, which join the pipes together and lay
them in the trench. They need electrical plant
and cranes to handle the pipes. All this plant
is not stationary, but constantly shifting over
difficult ground. The gangs of men need stores
and water, the tractors need petrol, oil, and
spare parts, and all this in the heart of a desert.
About 120,000 tons of pipe have to be moved
under these conditions, and a preliminary to it
is the laying of 1,000 miles of light telephone
over the track to be followed, so that the work
ing parties can always be in communication with
their headquarters. Already there are 6,000
men at work. By the middle of next year there
will be 20,000. Ten million pounds is spoken
of as the probable cost.