Saudi Arabia, 1951-1960 (Part VII)
- Pipeline
- In Search Of Oil
- Looking Back
Author: Bob Waters
Released 9 December 2003
Left to Right: Jo, Mohammad, ??, ??, Leah Cleaver
Photograph Contributed by Bob Waters
Jo, along with a few other women commuted to Dhahran to work at the airbase. In the morning, the Abqaiq girls rode the Aramco bus from Abqaiq to Dhahran.
Mohammed drove them in his taxi from the bus stop in Dhahran to work at the airbase. He picked them up after work at the airbase and drove them all the way home to Abqaiq each evening.
Mohammad in Cowboy Outfit
Photograph Contributed by Bob Waters
Door to Door Egg Man
Photograph Contributed by Bob Waters
One repat, Jo, purchased him a cowboy outfit that he was very pleased with.
In the early years in Abqaiq, we had merchants visit, house to house selling their wares. There was an egg man, with fresh eggs, a shrimp man with lovely large fresh shrimp, and Khalifa the pearl merchant. Jo told him one day that we had a state in the United States named after him. He was surprised and asked, what is it called and Jo said, "Kalifaornia". What a witty one she has always been.
The Vegetable Man
Photograph Contributed by Bob Waters
There was also ole Tex who would come to your door and in a Texas drawl ask if "Ya'll" wanted to purchase his wares. Jo and I always got a big kick out of ole Tex.
Donkey's Pulling Water from Well with Goatskins at the End of the Rope
Photograph Contributed by Bob Waters
Jo and I were invited along with about eight others to Hofuf to have lunch with several Arab friends. Our hosts were very gracious; it was a delightful lunch, a "tablecloth" was spread out on the ground among the date trees and we had a wonderful Arab meal with rice, sheep, dessert and of course, tea and coffee.
Donkey Carrying Palm Fronds and Rider
Photograph Contributed by Bob Waters
It was very quiet, peaceful and cool inside the gardens and our hosts were very hospitable.
In 1959, I was transferred to the Drilling Department as an Assistant Drilling Foreman. They shifted me around under different foremen and different areas to get the most experience in the minimum amount of time. I worked in Ain Dar under Harold Fannin, in Abu Hadriyah under Foreman Storm and finally in Khurais under Tex Guyon. It was a real thrill to operate those big horse powered rigs; I loved every bit of it.
One trip I will always remember was our flight by company plane from Abqaiq to Haradh, the south end of the Ghawar Field. Cottie Seager, Manager of Exploration, met us; we had breakfast, then he drove us to the site of the future location for drilling the test well in the Rub'Al-Khali.
Well Traveled Road
Photograph Contributed by Bob Waters
We ran out of hard top road and took out across the sand. There was an Exploration Party at the chosen spot and that is where we were headed in a sedan. It had sand tires but was just a regular sedan with a radio and two wheel drive. The road disappeared and Cottie was following a black line of oil that was our marker for the road that been made by leaving a valve partially open on an oil tanker that drove there some time before us. Every once in a while the black line just disappeared due to wind blowing sand over the black marker.
Slip-face
Photograph Contributed by Bob Waters
Eventually we would find it, but one time we had to go down the slip-face of a dune to get back on the marker. We all held our breath on that one, but good ole Cottie made it.
We reached the campsite; they fed us and bedded us down in the open desert with an army cot. The next morning we picked out a suitable location for the rig and then headed back to Abqaiq. What a beautiful trip that was.
We also saw lots of dead camels and camel bones on the way and a surprising number of small groups of Saudi travelers on their camels with small herds.
Other company trips were to the Neutral Zone, Kuwait and Qatar to visit their drilling and producing facilities and operations. Each was very interesting and it was good to exchange ideas. I attended a Schlumberger Electric Logging school in Paris, France for about one week and was the envy of all my co-workers. Aramco also sent me on a several week course at a Drilling School, in Odessa, Texas one year on home leave.
Susan and Bobby
Photograph Contributed by Bob Waters
I really enjoyed my Assistant Drilling Foreman experience, but I became disenchanted working 12 hours on and 12 hours off, not including driving time from and to the rigs, which could amount up to another couple of hours per day. Nor did I enjoy being out in the desert for 21 days without getting home, but they did give us seven days off after the 21 days in the desert camps.
Years later I learned Aramco was grooming me to take over as an Assistant Drilling Superintendent, but nobody told me that until I resigned and returned to the states.
I don’t think the children ever did forgive me for leaving Aramco when I did. But Jo and I figured it was time to move on, so we did. We packed it up and shipped all of our belongings home and left Saudi in June 1960. I had no idea where I would be working next.
Aramco offered to get me a transfer to a parent company, but I had it in mind to check it out myself and maybe hook up with a Drilling Company Contractor as a Drilling Engineer or a Superintendent.