The East/West Pipeline 

By: Tuffy Fields

Life is full of adventure and it is up to the individual that is navigating his or her life’s journey to take advantage of what life throws at it. Personally, I enjoy change and that is why I embrace project management. One day during the oil market oil market glut in the mid 1980s I was rebuilding offshore platforms. One week later the project was cancelled and I was assigned to the pump station work on the east/west pipeline. What an adventure that was. 

The East–West Pipeline—also known as the Petroline—is a 1,200km (746 mile) crude oil corridor crossing Saudi Arabia from Abqaiq on the Persian Gulf to Yanbu on the Red Sea. Built in the early 1980s amid the Iran–Iraq War, its purpose was to guarantee Saudi export continuity even if the Strait of Hormuz became unsafe. 

The East–West Pipeline emerged from one of the most volatile periods in modern Middle Eastern history. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Iran–Iraq War escalated into the Tanker War, during which both Iran and Iraq targeted oil shipments in the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia, whose exports depended heavily on Gulf shipping lanes, faced the real possibility that the Strait of Hormuz—its primary maritime outlet— could be blocked or rendered too dangerous for tankers. In response, the kingdom launched an ambitious plan to construct a transArabian pipeline that would allow crude oil to reach the Red Sea safely.