Coll 54/2 'Middle East (Official) Committee: Working Party' [‎100r] (199/642)

quantities in 1938, and since that date both production
and proved reserves have steadily increased. Current
production is at the rate of* about 450*000 barrels per day.
and for a period of three days in late 1948 off-take'-was
experimentally stopped up to a maximum of nearly 600.000
barrels a day. If demand warranted it, and if sufficient
tanker? or pipeline capacity and stabilisers wore available
to transport the oil, this rate could, it is believed, bo
maintained indefinitely. Throe fields are at present in
operation and four others are under investigation and
development. The current rate of production ropresonts a
royalty payment of rather over 4 , 700,000 gold pounds a year.
Arabian American Oil Company has a wide programme
of development and capital expenditure; the construction
of ,a pipeline to Sidon, a port in the Lebanon is also
proposed.
5« Water supply
_ adequate supplies can bo located, the Government is
planning for the provision of piped water to Mecca, Yonbo
and other towns.
6 . Communications .
Gavornment has in progress a number of projects of
which the most important are connected with communications.
Deep water jetties are under construction at Jedda, and at
Dammam on the east coast. The road from Jodda to Medina
is to. be graded and metalled, and there is talk of doubling
the road from Jedda to Mecca. A railway is under •
construction from Dhahran and Dammam to Riyadh, though it is
doubtful when or whether it will be taken beyond Abquiq in
the oil fields; despite favourable reports by the American
engineers who conducted the survey for the lino, it is
questionable whether its extension to Riyadh would bo an
economic proposition. In addition, the Government-owned. •
Saudi Arabian Airlines provide an effective, if irregular,
system of trans-peninsular air services. Other projects of
lessor economic importance, although of great value in
instilling an appreciation of higher standards of living,
are the supply of electricity to .Jedda, Mecca and Taif, to
shortly by Medina, and the provision of a pure
w f tQI \ supply for Jedda. This last, although
not complete, is already operative, and is of the greatest
benefit to the health and comfort of the town people.
of* & 1 1S0 a Go y Qrnmont scheme for the installation
of modem telephone systems in the towns of the Hejaz.
?• Education •
Except in the religious sphere there are very few
organs of higher or technical education in the country-
schools are few and even .elementary technical education is '
hardly available outside Mecca and Dhahran. The Arabian •
Oil Company have undertaken an .educational scheme at the
latter which is mainly intended to benefit their own
operations by raising the standard of their intake of
labour