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Exports Begins |
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| Home | Crude oil exports began the same year from a small storage and shipping terminal at nearby al-Khobar, then a tiny coastal village, which received crude oil from a 15-centimeter (six-inch) pipeline for barging to the Bahrain Petroleum Company on Bahrain. Ras Tanura was selected as the site for a tanker terminal. The first Saudi crude oil was shipped aboard the tanker D. G. Scofield on May 1, 1939, in the presence of King 'Abd al-'Aziz Al Sa'ud. After the outbreak of World War II in 1939 oil operations in Saudi Arabia gradually came to a halt. Limited activity resumed in the fall of 1943, when plans were announced for the 50,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery at Ras Tanura. Sharp increased in production marked the postwar push by Aramco for its share of the expanding crude oil market. Production, which had averaged less than 20,000 bpd before 1944, increased to 500,000 bpd by the end of 1949. From 1950 through 1969, crude production rose at a rate of about nine percent per year. By 1970, production reached approximately 3.5 million bpd, a rate which would more than double over the next decade. The company produced a record 9,631,366 bpd in 1980. Saudi Aramco produces more crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) than any other company in the world. NGL is composed of propane, butane and natural gasoline.
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