By Todd Williams
From dents to digitalization of school yearbooks, a wide path for this week's Memory Lane.
Pictured is the Hofuf Special, leaving Dhahran Station on a payday Thursday afternoon and destined for the big oasis city of Hofuf. This unique every other Thursday operation of the Saudi Government Railroad pulled out of Dhahran 45 minutes after the siren signals the start of the long weekend. It picked up the bulk of its passengers in Abqaiq, and then pointed south. The return run from Hofuf to Dhahran via Abqaiq was made Friday evening. (This photo was taken by T.F. Walters in November 1952)
This week we examine an early marine mishap, the arrival of Sesame Street on Aramco Television, pioneering use of solar power, the first digital yearbook at in the Aramco expatriate school system, and bringing Haradh GOSP-3 into production.
Feb. 14, 1956
The tanker Caltex Singapore rammed into the tie-up wharf at Ras Tanura's North Pier, splitting open a fuel oil line, a white diesel line, a black diesel line, a water fire line, two bunker lines, and badly denting three crude oil lines.
The accident occurred about 9:15 a.m. Feb. 5 when the Singapore was attempting to dock at their pier's south inside berth.
The crude oil lines were repaired and loading was resumed the same day. Bunker and product lines were repaired Feb. 10.
Feb. 3, 1971
When your 4-year-old neighbor affects a deep voice and growls, "Cookie," it's evidence that he has joined his Stateside contemporaries in the vast subculture of preschoolers within range of Sesame Street, the widely acclaimed educational television series that premiers tomorrow on Aramco Television.
Along with the likes of a 7-foot canary, a host of "muppets" and Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster shares the limelight with the four permanent human members of the cast and occasional big-name guest stars.
Feb. 5, 1986
An Aramco first — and possibly a first within the entire oil industry — occurred this past October when 20 solar-powered generating panels were installed on an offshore well platform in the Berri field as part of an Aramco program to examine the technical and economic feasibility of solar-powered cathodic protection systems for offshore well casings.
The two-phase test is the logical outcome of a program that began several years ago, when Aramco successfully began to use solar energy to combat corrosion of onshore wells and pipelines.
“Solar energy has proved to be the most economical power for cathodic protection of remote onshore structures, so it was natural to consider for off-shore applications.”
— Ahmed Abu Isa, supervisor of the Cathodic Protection Unit of the Technical Services Department
Feb. 7, 1996
The entire 1995 Abqaiq School Yearbook will not fit in the palm of your hand. This one-of-a-kind feat is possible thanks to the ability of six students under the tutelage of Terry Cornelius, the school's computer teacher, and Bruce Drake, independent study director.
They went from designing and producing a multimedia yearbook to producing a compact disc that runs on an Apple Macintosh computer.
Taking about 16 weeks to accomplish, the CD contains not only information from the yearbook, but each student in the school had a chance to give a voice-over self introduction and talk about his or her favorite things.
Feb. 8, 2006
In a record 21 months from approval of funding, oil started flowing through the new Haradh gas-oil separation plant (GOSP) from several of 32 new wells that will feed the facility.
Initially, oil and its associated gas began pulsing through the new Haradh GOSP-3 through more than 160 kilometers of oil and gas pipeline to Abqaiq Stabilization Plant and 'Uthmaniyah Gas Plant for further processing. Once fully on-stream, the facility will crank out 300,000 barrels of oil and 140 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.
— The Arabian Sun: February 10, 2021