Abstract
THE construction of the Iraq Petroleum Company's pipe-line to convey oil from the Mosul oilfields to the Mediterranean seaboard is an engineering feat of no mean importance and one which has been watched with keen interest by petroleum technologists and engineers all over the world. Its real completion may be said to have been achieved at 2.30 a.m. on October 14, when the first stream of oil pumped from the fields reached Haifa; according to the Times it is anticipated that the first shipments of oil will be made before the end of October. The pipe-line stretches for nearly 1,200 miles over extremely difficult country, much of which is desert. It runs from Kirkuk to Haditha, where it bifurcates, and the southern (British) line follows through Transjordania and reaches the pipe-line terminal at Haifa. The actual pipe-line was completed in 1933, since when most of the engineering work has been concerned with the installation of the necessary boosting stations en route. With the delivery of oil to the seaboard, it may be confidently asserted that the pumping installations have proved their efficiency and that the regular flow of oil will now become a routine matter. We have as yet no information as to whether oil is being diverted along the French line, that is, through Syrian territory to Tripolis, but doubtless this will also soon be an accomplished feat. The influence of this oil now made available to European refineries will be considerable, and will undoubtedly affect both the political and economic aspects of the petroleum industry within a com paratively short space of time.
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Iraq Oil reaches Haifa. Nature 134, 600 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134600c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134600c0