My wife, Ann, and I moved to Abqaiq in 2010 to begin a six-year stint with Saudi Aramco. It was my second time living in Saudi, and, fortunately, I had preserved and brought my photographs of the Fazran Bedouins taken in 1978 and 1979.
With the northern hemisphere shivering in the wintry February weather, what could be more appealing than to travel eight thousand miles from Europe to shiver in an Antarctic summer? This is what we decided to do in February 2022.
I arrived in Saudi in the second half of 1973 and initially lived in a flat in Al-Khobar until our compound was ready nearby. I can’t remember how I first came into contact with the rugby but my wife, Joy, tells me that Bruce Drowley and family lived in the same block of flats.
After the two-hour delay in exiting the train, we leave Folkstone on the M20 motorway to London. As both we and the Discovery Land Rover need fuel, we pull into a motorway service area and grab a meal at a very busy ‘Little Chief’ motorway restaurant. The Discovery gets filled up with forty-eight liters of diesel at a cost of 32 pounds.
The Dhahran Chess Club’s 2022 Annual General Meeting and Dinner event was held recently at Salat Al-Khalij in Aramco’s Dhahran community. The occasion celebrated the club’s 50th year of service to the community and members’ recent achievements. The full room of club members and their families was testament to the club’s resilience over recent years, and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, ably and enthusiastically curated by the club’s Board members.
From North African deserts to Indo-Pacific archipelagos, creatures of the lands, seas and skies have been depicted in art, venerated in temples and hunted for more than 8,000 years. Now they are increasingly protected.
The Yanbu’ Refinery Department (YRD) Laboratory recently celebrated the selection of a master’s degree thesis of lab scientist Refaa E. Bajnaid for publication ProQuest, the respected international scientific portal.
Shahd Telmessani, C&OE group leader in Aramco’s Fire Protection Department (FrPD) employee, was recently recognized through the Middle East-based Leadership Excellence for Women Awards (LEWAS).
Dr. Najiha Kaiser Alavi is the daughter of Saudi Aramco retiree Kaiseruddin Ahmed Alavi, Financial Accounting Department, badge number 73895. Kaiser Alavi and his wife Mrs. Salma Kaiser, the proud parents, were present to witness the graduation ceremony of their daughter. She was awarded the degree of Doctor of Pharmacy (PhD).
From the Jan. 5, 1955 edition of the Arabian Sun and Flare. Cinerama crews are slated to photograph Dhahran and the adjacent area, including Tapline, for a Cinerama production on the "seven modern wonders of the world" this week.
Since moving to Washington, D.C. a few months ago, I have been browsing different grocery stores. While mega-chain brands like Whole Foods and Target are commonplace no matter where you go, I hold a special place in my heart for local stores that operate as the underdog in the community.
The 8th UK Aramcons Reunion will be held on June 8th-11th, 2023 at Leonardo Royal Hotel Southampton Grand Harbour.
In France, we are now on the E-25/N-205 to Les-Houches. We stop just across the border for lunch at a trucker café serving great, simple food with as much bread as you can eat and as much wine as you can drink included in the base price. Full and slightly drunk, we fill the Disco (Land Rover Discovery) with diesel and take the toll road, A-40/E-25 towards Geneva.
From the front page of the Jan. 4, 1978 edition of The Arabian Sun. John J. Kelberer, Aramco's senior vice president of Operations since 1975, was elected chairman of the board and designated the company's chief executive officer at the recent board of directors meeting held in London.
From the front page of the Jan. 3, 1990 edition of The Arabian Sun. The scene was unusual. For a change, managers were in the hot seat as their young but feisty subordinates fired away. The managers, from within Community Services, field questions and even gripes from a roomful of young Professional Development Program employees or PDPs.
From the Jan. 2, 2002 edition of The Arabian Sun. Dec. 29 was a banner day for Saudi Aramco, for Information Technology and for the hundreds of people who had been involved with the SAP Project, some for the past six years.
From the Dec. 29, 1965 edition of the Sun and Flare. Drilling records continue to fall in the Abqaiq Drilling Division, as November's record drilling time for Shedgum Well-32 of 11.8 days was bettered three times in December in land wells, and a new offshore drilling record was established.
AramcoWorld, Saudi Aramco's flagship publication, is widely recognized as a leading source of nonpolitical coverage of the history, geography, arts and cultures of Saudi Arabia, the Middle East and the wider Islamic world, with an emphasis on the interweavings of the plural cultures of East and West, past and present.
The first edition of Panorama appeared in 1982, published by Loss Prevention (LP) to “give a wide view of safety.” While the magazine began with a focus of on-the-job safety, the first edition included a number of articles about nonoperational topics — ensuring eye safety while playing racquet sports, as well as advice on how to wear a ghutra without affecting peripheral vision while driving.
From the Dec. 28, 1994 edition of The Arabian Sun. Where's Rabigh? It's a question with which residents of Rabigh Industrial City have become familiar since Saudi Aramco inherited the location in 1993.