© Mark Lowey 2023. All rights reserved.
In this piece, recent college graduates Mark Lowey and Jim Sides venture to Saudi Arabia to work in Aramco’s vast Ghawar oil field, where on one eventful day they find themselves aboard an Aramco helicopter flying over Bedouin encampments.
How We Got To Saudi
Born and raised in Southern California and Northern California, respectively, Jim and I were recent university graduates, class of 1977. Jim attended California State University, Fullerton, and majored in accounting and finance. I received a Bachelor of Science in Construction Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
How both of us landed our first jobs in Saudi Arabia was something of a rarity. At that time, the larger companies like Aramco, Bechtel, and Fluor required employees to have at least five years of applicable experience before being invited to work in Saudi Arabia. Santa Fe International was different.
Corporate Recruiters
In my senior year at Cal Poly, I was part of a cohort of thirty construction engineering students. Due to our specialized curriculum that included architectural design, civil and structural engineering, and construction methods and materials, it was relatively easy for us to find jobs upon graduation.
Bechtel, Fluor, and Santa Fe visited our Cal Poly classroom to recruit young talent. Many of us accepted positions in Los Angeles, Irvine, and San Francisco. Santa Fe was offering the opportunity to go directly overseas as a site project controls engineer in the Arabian oil fields.
After initially accepting a preliminary offer to start my career with Bechtel in San Francisco, I found myself yearning for adventure and decided to go with Santa Fe instead. I spent two months in their Orange, California headquarters and in April 1978 was dispatched to Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia.
Bedouin Connection Chapter I – My First Days in Saudi Arabia
Bedouin Connection Chapter 2 – Living and Working in the oil fields of Saudi Arabia
Jim Sells Suits
For Jim, it began quite differently but had the same end result. Jim worked several jobs to put himself through university. He worked summers as a union construction worker and sold suits on commission at Harris and Frank, a men’s clothing store at the Orange Mall. His biggest sale was over $5,000 worth of suits, shirts and accessories sold to a gentleman who happened to be the Vice President of human resources at Santa Fe International.
As graduation approached, Jim took job interviews with accounting firms such as Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers. On a whim, Jim contacted that big-dollar, suit-buying VP at Santa Fe and asked for an interview. The VP had been impressed by Jim and Santa Fe was hiring. Jim was promptly offered a position in Saudi Arabia as an entry-level timekeeper and was told he could establish himself and move up from there. Jim flew to Saudi Arabia in March 1978 and, sure enough, after two short months, was promoted to Cost Engineer.
Moonbase Abqaiq
In 2017, I described our “home away from home” in this publication:
Flat, vast, and void of landscaping, the Abqaiq Contractors Camp across the road from the Aramco community camp lived up to its nickname, “Moonbase.” The camp housed 10,000 men of different nationalities working for contracting companies that supported Aramco. Before arriving, I had been told it was a “bachelor” camp, meaning all-male, but it was still odd to live in an environment with no women. Nevertheless, free meals, laundry service, and room cleaning weren't such a bad deal.
Our living quarters were modular, portable trailers set on small concrete foundations arranged in neat rows. The one-man, side-by-side bedrooms had a single bed, freestanding closet, two-drawer bedside table, dresser, small desk and one window-mounted air conditioning unit that provided soothing “white noise” to sleep by. Down a long interior hallway, we shared communal showers and toilets. The linoleum floor gave a little with each footstep, and the lack of sound insulation in the walls between rooms was revealed when your next-door neighbor had visitors or played music.
Daily Life and Basketball
Jim and I met sometime in May 1978, most likely at the outdoor basketball court in the man camp. We worked in the project controls department and were assigned to different remote construction job sites that were building Gas Oil Separation Plants (GOSPs) for Aramco.
On the camp’s outdoor court, Mark shoots while Jim, center in pale yellow shorts, prepares for the rebound.
Jim and I became fast friends. After work, we often drove over to the Abqaiq school gym in the Aramco community to play pick-up basketball. After games, we could go to the dining hall or golf club snack bar for treats not available in our camp. Sometimes the basketball was limited to Aramco employees, so we, as contractors, were invited to referee their games, instead.
Aramcon Tom Swords
Through basketball, we became acquainted with several Aramco employees, including Tom Swords, an American from Georgia. Ten or fifteen years our senior, Tom lived in the Aramco community with his family. He was a pipeline inspector who conducted his surveys using a helicopter service.
Let’s Fly
One day near the end of June 1979, Tom told us he had several flight-hours he needed to use up so he could fulfill his monthly allotment. “Would you like to have a ride in my helicopter?” “Boy, would we!”
Jim and I were instructed to meet Tom at a helipad near the Aramco community. The four-person helicopter would pick us up there. Because I carried my trusty Olympus OM-2 SLR camera, I asked to ride “shotgun,” the favored seat next to the pilot that had the best view. Jim and Tom agreed to sit in the back.
A four-seater like Tom’s helicopter
Jim Sides and Tom Swords
Our pilot
The helicopter route that day.
We asked to see our construction job sites from the air, so we immediately flew northwest to Fazran where I had been posted since January. One by one, the brown-striped tents of Bedouin encampments appeared. As we approached Fazran, more and more tents came into view. [1]
The view from above was breathtaking. When we flew near an encampment, the tent dwellers came out in the open and waved at us.
Bedouin encampments with Fazran GOSP in the background
Bedouin encampment, family name unknown.
The main sections of a Bedouin tent.
10 Residence of Ali Salem Al-Marri. His son waves at us. Baby Camel and fuel barrels in pen at left.
The Bedouins lived near Fazran semi-permanently, attracted by the Aramco-provided permanent water supply; a concrete camel trough to water their livestock and an upright pipe with a curved top used to fill the tanker trucks that delivered water to desert dwellers who kept large, metal cisterns near their tents. Historically, Bedouins moved more frequently, from water well to water well, and constantly searched for grazing for their camels and sheep.
Adjacent to the Fazran GOSP were several tents occupying the most desirable spots. I came to know many of the Bedouin residents of these encampments.[2]
Return
Then we flew south above Fazran road and hovered over Ain Dar GOSPs 1 and 2 before turning east following the Abqaiq Road. We flew over the Aramco community and our own camp on either side of the Abqaiq-Dhahran road.
Abqaiq Contractors Camp.
Knowing Tom
In addition to being a generous friend, knowing Tom was a distinct advantage for us. Tom would allow us guest access to the Aramco community with its facilities and verdant landscaping. When Tom and his family went on home leave, he asked us to watch his house and feed his cat. “No problem!” was our response.
Tom’s cat, Thunder.
Searching for Tom
I returned to Abqaiq in 2010 and searched for any trace of Tom. I found his old house in a disused section of the Aramco community. I inquired about him at the Aramco post office and posted a message on the Aramco Expats website asking if anyone knew of his whereabouts. No clues.
Tom Swords would have been around 15 years older than Jim and me, so today his age might be around age 73. Tom, if you’re out there, Jim and I wish you the very best. And thanks for the lift!
- - -
References:
[1] Heads of households, Bedouin encampments near Fazran GOSP-1 in June 1979.
- Fazran Gas Oil Separation Plant
- Abdulhadi Alsy’ari [2]
- Saleh Saeed Al-Araj Al-Marri
- Resident unknown
- Water tanker truck
- Mohammed Ali Al-Qutaimah Al-Marri
- Resident unknown
- Camel trough and water tanker fill station
[2] Tent interior December 1978. Abdulhadi Alsy’ari and Mark Lowey on the left. Also pictured, the Alsy’ari children and Faleh Al Hajri. [3]
[3] Faleh Al Hajri – Camel whisperer. Link: https://www.aramcoexpats.com/articles/tales-of-the-bedouin-part-viii-travels-with-stephen-part-1/
The author in 1979.
About the Author: California-born and raised, Mark Lowey - known to many as Abu Jack - earned a degree in Construction Management and embarked on a career that started in Saudi Arabia and continued around the world. By luck or fate, his final project before retirement took him back to Saudi Arabia.
A self-taught amateur photographer, Mark documented his early days in Saudi while living in Abqaiq and working in the vast oil fields of the Kingdom’s Eastern Province.
Mark and his wife are now retired and have returned to California.
Email: moloworking1@gmail.com