TB2 and I have been hearing for years all the stories about our Dad's time in Shaybah. We knew it was some type of oil facility that was built in the desert, but I don't think either of us realized the scale and impressiveness of the project until we went.
In Aramco, Shaybah is a pretty big deal. It tapped into a new oil field in the Rub Al Khali desert, which translates into the Empty Quarter. The facility, which collects oil from the wells and separates the crude from the natural gas (see the Oil is Like Champagne post), produces 750,000 barrels of oil per day. At today's price of $50 a barrel that's over $37 million...A DAY.
And all of this was built in the middle of the desert in the hottest part of Arabia out of nothing.
Shaybah was one of the most ambitious and successful projects at Aramco and since Dad was one of the four primary project managers on the project, that made him something of a celebrity on our trip.
As soon as we got to the airport he was recognized by some of the men still working at Shaybah who immediately recognized him and came over to say hello.
He out-toured the local tour guide with stories of how they first surveyed the location in the middle of the dessert with convoys of Hummers and had to sleep under the water tankers on their first trips. He talked about the fleet of 80 dozers that worked for weeks to move 30 million cubic meters of sand from the area. And one of my favorite stories was about how they had to import sand into the desert because the sand in the Rub Al Khali was so fine that they couldn't use it to make concrete!
Gene became the go-to-person on the trip for questions about how Shaybah was built, to what exactly does a GOSP do.
The attention continued when one of the reunion organizers learned of his background and arranged for another interview. The reunion committee has been charged with collecting stories for the Saudi Aramco archives, and dad's anecdotes about Shaybah were just the type of information they were looking for. Shannon McNulty, one of TB2's Brat friends and a reunion committee volunteer, ended up conducting the interview.
Being in Shaybah and seeing this giant, self-contained oil production facility was the highlights of our trip so far. And finally getting to see, first hand, the result of our Dad's amazing work over three years will make listening to all the stories we'll hear over and over again a treat. ;-)
In Aramco, Shaybah is a pretty big deal. It tapped into a new oil field in the Rub Al Khali desert, which translates into the Empty Quarter. The facility, which collects oil from the wells and separates the crude from the natural gas (see the Oil is Like Champagne post), produces 750,000 barrels of oil per day. At today's price of $50 a barrel that's over $37 million...A DAY.
And all of this was built in the middle of the desert in the hottest part of Arabia out of nothing.
Shaybah was one of the most ambitious and successful projects at Aramco and since Dad was one of the four primary project managers on the project, that made him something of a celebrity on our trip.
As soon as we got to the airport he was recognized by some of the men still working at Shaybah who immediately recognized him and came over to say hello.
He out-toured the local tour guide with stories of how they first surveyed the location in the middle of the dessert with convoys of Hummers and had to sleep under the water tankers on their first trips. He talked about the fleet of 80 dozers that worked for weeks to move 30 million cubic meters of sand from the area. And one of my favorite stories was about how they had to import sand into the desert because the sand in the Rub Al Khali was so fine that they couldn't use it to make concrete!
Gene became the go-to-person on the trip for questions about how Shaybah was built, to what exactly does a GOSP do.
He even had his own paparazzi as the ASC reporter who has been on many of our excursions found out his background and interviewed him along with one of the geologists who also worked on the project.
The attention continued when one of the reunion organizers learned of his background and arranged for another interview. The reunion committee has been charged with collecting stories for the Saudi Aramco archives, and dad's anecdotes about Shaybah were just the type of information they were looking for. Shannon McNulty, one of TB2's Brat friends and a reunion committee volunteer, ended up conducting the interview.
Being in Shaybah and seeing this giant, self-contained oil production facility was the highlights of our trip so far. And finally getting to see, first hand, the result of our Dad's amazing work over three years will make listening to all the stories we'll hear over and over again a treat. ;-)
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