IRAQ OILFIELDS

Hokitika Guardian, 28 December 1932, Page 6

IRAQ OILFIELDS

HUGE PIPE-LINE SYSTEM

USE OF INDUSTRIAL TRACTORS.

Under'the'terras of an agreement between the Government of Iraq and the Iraq Petroleum Com piny, a group of British, French, American, and other interests, the company was given the exclusive right, for a period of 75 years, to obtain, manufacture, and transport petroleum products from a spec-hied area east of the Tigris river. The convention granting these rights to the Iraq Petroleum Company was signed in March, 1931, and effects an area of 32,003 square miles. The company undertook to pay the Government a royalty of four shillings per ton (gold) on all oil saved, the total yearly sum to be paid to he not less than £400,000. It also und.rtook to construct a pipe-line system with a capacity of not hss than 3,000,000 tons of oil a year, the pipe-lines to be completed not later than December 31st, 1935. ACROSS 1203 MILES OF TERRITORY. Although the agreements specified a pipe-line system with a yearly capacity of 3,000,000 tons, the Iraq Petroleum Company is setting about the construction of lines with a capacity of 4,500,030 tons to carry its products across the arid desert to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Work lias al- | ready been commenced on til's gigantic | project, and the task of laying the I pipelines across nearly 1200 miles cl I territory is regarded as the largest open-country construction enterprise in the world. On leaving the oilfields at Kirkuk, the pipe-lines run jn double line for 150 miles as far as Haditlia where they branch into two single lines, the northern liiie running via Palmyra through Syria to the seaport of Tripoli on the Mediterranean Sea, a distance of 531 miles from Kirkuk. The southern line runs via Rutbah, through Transjordan to Haifa, the port of Palestine in British mandated territory and covens a distance of 468 miles from the branch at Haditlia, or 618 miles from the oilfields. IMPRESSIVE FIGURES. Some idea of the magnitude of the • undertaking is evidenced by the fact that 1180 miles of pipe, weighing approximately 120,000 tons Will be required. In addition, telegraph and telephone lines will be erected along the pipe lines and these will necessitate the use of 25,000 steel tubular poles with cast-iron bases, 21,000 timber cross-arms, 120,000 spindles and insulators and over 4000 miles of cadmium copper wire, together with the necessary stays, hinders, and instruments. Special towers, 130 feet high, will be used to carry the wires across the Tigris and the Euphrates. Offices, stores, workshops, garages, and sheds at various,points along' tlie"lines will require 1650 tons of steel work. The transportation of this vast amount of material over country that is geographically hostile to almost any form to transport was a matter of great importance and in this- connection jt is interesting to note that the Iraq Petroleum Company is at present using no fewer than 76 Internationa] trucks of various sizes on its great project. These trucks are required to operate under conditions which, climatically and geologically, are probably the worst to be found in any part of the world. PROOF OF STURDINESS. With temperatures ranging ns high as 130 cleg Fahr., and altitudes mounting, in some districts, to 10,000 feet above sea level, with wet seasons when the wadis become raging torrents and dry seasons when all Nature seems to shrivel under, the burning sun, an the great stony desert west of the EuI phvates. on sandy wastes and barren ! uplands these Internationals are doing a job that affords convincing proof of . the sturdiness and operating efficiency 1 for which these trucks are famous.

In,addition to the 70 International trucks mentioned above, 1 e Iraq Petroleum Company is also using no fewer than 73 McCormiek-Deering Industrial, Tractors on its great undertaking. These tractors, which are fitted with crawler tracks, side booms front booms, and winches, are used for laying the pipes in the trenches, and are also used for back-filling the trenches when the pipes are laid. The new story of Inernational’s endeavours in the great waste spaces.

is a fitting supplement to the recently

published account 0 f the work performed bv nearly 100 '/Internationals used by Six Companys, Inc., the contractors for the, great £10,000,000 Hoover Dam now in course of construction on the Colorado liver in the United States. These two stories are indeed a fine tribute t<> International construction, and are moreover, a striking example of the faith that is placed in International bv experienced engine's in every part of the world.