Ras Tanura
Encyclopedia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
located on a peninsula extending into the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
. The name Ras Tanura applies both to a gated
Gated community
In its modern form, a gated community is a form of residential community or housing estate containing strictly-controlled entrances for pedestrians, bicycles, and automobiles, and often characterized by a closed perimeter of walls and fences. Gated communities usually consist of small residential...
Saudi Aramco employee compound (also referred to as "Najmah") and to an industrial area further out on the peninsula that serves as a major oil
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
port and oil operations center for Saudi Aramco
Saudi Aramco
Saudi Aramco , officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is the national oil company of Saudi Arabia.Saudi Aramco is the world's largest and most valuable privately-held company, with estimates of its value in 2011 to be $7 trillion USD.Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves,...
, the largest oil company in the world. Today, the compound has about 3,200 residents, with a few Americans and British expats.
Geographically, the Ras Tanura complex is located a distance south of
the modern industrial port city of Jubail
Jubail
Jubail , is a city in the Eastern province on the Persian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia. It consists of the Old Town of Al Jubail, which was originally a small fishing village, up to 1975 and the new industrial area....
(formerly a sleepy fishing village) and north across Tarut Bay from the old port city of (Al-)Dammam
Dammam
Dammam is the capital of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, the most oil-rich region in the world. The judicial and administrative bodies of the province and several government departments are located in the city. Dammam is the largest city in the Eastern Province and third largest in Saudi...
. Although Ras Tanura's port area is located on a small peninsula
Peninsula
A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....
, due to modern oil tankers' need for deeper water, Saudi Aramco
Saudi Aramco
Saudi Aramco , officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is the national oil company of Saudi Arabia.Saudi Aramco is the world's largest and most valuable privately-held company, with estimates of its value in 2011 to be $7 trillion USD.Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves,...
has built numerous artificial island
Artificial island
An artificial island or man-made island is an island or archipelago that has been constructed by people rather than formed by natural means...
s for easier docking. In addition, offshore oil rigs and production facilities
Oil platform
An oil platform, also referred to as an offshore platform or, somewhat incorrectly, oil rig, is a lаrge structure with facilities to drill wells, to extract and process oil and natural gas, and to temporarily store product until it can be brought to shore for refining and marketing...
have been constructed in the waters nearby, mostly by Saudi Aramco
Saudi Aramco
Saudi Aramco , officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is the national oil company of Saudi Arabia.Saudi Aramco is the world's largest and most valuable privately-held company, with estimates of its value in 2011 to be $7 trillion USD.Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves,...
, Schlumberger
Schlumberger
Schlumberger Limited is the world's largest oilfield services company. Schlumberger employs over 110,000 people of more than 140 nationalities working in approximately 80 countries...
, and Halliburton
Halliburton
Halliburton is the world's second largest oilfield services corporation with operations in more than 70 countries. It has hundreds of subsidiaries, affiliates, branches, brands and divisions worldwide and employs over 50,000 people....
.
Najmah compound (Aramco code: RT) is one of four residential compounds built by ARAMCO in the 1940s and the only one located on the gulf itself. Ras Tanura refinery is surrounded by a heavily guarded security fence, and Saudi employees and their dependents may live inside the Najmah residential compound which is less heavily guarded. Built originally to allow expatriate oil company employees (mainly Americans) a degree of Western comfort and separation from the restrictions of Saudi and Islamic laws, the community today has shifted somewhat in line with the reduction of western residents into a multi-ethnic mosaic of Saudis, other Arab nationalities (e.g. Egyptian and Jordanian), Filipinos, Indians, Pakistanis, and a few Americans and British expats - all of whom live with English as the common language.
Highway
Ras Tanura is connected with the Dhahran-Jubail HighwayDhahran-Jubail Highway
An important highway located in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. It connects Dhahran in the south and Jubail in the north crossing the cities between which are Dammam, Saihat, Qatif, Safwa city and nearby Ras Tanura...
which links it with far away towns such as Jubail
Jubail
Jubail , is a city in the Eastern province on the Persian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia. It consists of the Old Town of Al Jubail, which was originally a small fishing village, up to 1975 and the new industrial area....
and Dammam
Dammam
Dammam is the capital of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, the most oil-rich region in the world. The judicial and administrative bodies of the province and several government departments are located in the city. Dammam is the largest city in the Eastern Province and third largest in Saudi...
.
Airport
Although there is a small airport in the city "Ras Tanura AirportRas Tanura Airport
Ras Tanura Airport is a small airport in the western side of Ras Tanura city in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The airport occupies an area of 1.9 km², surrounded by residential areas and oil pipelines.-Overview:...
", commercial air transportation is provided by King Fahd International Airport
King Fahd International Airport
King Fahd International Airport is located 20 kilometers northwest of Dammam, Saudi Arabia. It is the largest airport in the world in terms of land area . The airport's basic infrastructure was complete by the end of 1990, which allowed the Allied forces engaged in the first Gulf War in early...
in Dammam as the local one is for the exclusive use of Saudi Aramco
Saudi Aramco
Saudi Aramco , officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is the national oil company of Saudi Arabia.Saudi Aramco is the world's largest and most valuable privately-held company, with estimates of its value in 2011 to be $7 trillion USD.Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves,...
, mainly helicopters. The distance from the city center to the terminal in Dammam Airport is approximately 50 km (31.1 mi). However a current project is ongoing to shorten that distance to 40 km (24.9 mi) if the new road is completed.
See also
- SAR201SAR201Saudi Aramco Rig 201 is the only offshore rig owned by Saudi Aramco, the largest oil company in the world in terms of production and proven reserves....
- Ras Tanura Middle School
- DhahranDhahranDhahran is a city located in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, and is a major administrative center for the Saudi oil industry. Large oil reserves were first identified in the Dhahran area in 1931, and in 1935 Standard Oil of California drilled the first commercially viable oil well...
- AbqaiqAbqaiqAbqaiq, or in Arabic Bqaiq , is a Saudi Aramco camp in the interior of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, located in the desert 60 km southwest of the Dhahran-Dammam-Khobar metropolitan area. The camp was built in the 1940s by ARAMCO...
- UdhailiyahUdhailiyahUdhailiyah [pronounced Ew'd Aleea] is a small oil company compound in the interior of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia located in the desert southwest of the Dhahran-Dammam-Khobar metropolitan area. Built by the national oil company Saudi Aramco, Udhailiyah has a population of approximately...
- Khobar Towers
External links
- http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Saudi+Arabia&ll=26.693785,50.135078&spn=0.144823,0.303326&t=k&hl=en Satellite image showing most parts of Ras Tanura: Aramco residential area, common city, and the huge oilfarms and oil seaport.
- City-specific images and documents from the Aramco-Brats.com website
- Aramco Services Company site: By clicking the "communities" link, information and photo tour can be found about Ras Tanura as well as other Aramco communities.
- A billion barrels ago..., stories in the Ras Tanura refinery
- Ports of Ras Tanura