eleven thousand miles from san francisco eight thousand miles from new york there lies a primeval desert a mass of drifting sand and sun baked earth one third the unproductive on the surface might contain minerals below the surface including oil but vast sums would be needed for a certain development and there was no quick way to a realization of this ho in the early one nine hundred thirty is an american oil company obtained a concession on bahrain island twenty five miles out on the persian gulf the venture was successful and occasionally there was speculation as to whether even greater opportunities might lie across the green and they begun and finally recommended that the rest be taken but whether these unknown sands would justify the outlay of millions of dollars was still a decision that had to be made by the company directors in san francisco eleven thousand miles away they knew it would mean sinking into the desert the money of thousands of stockholders in a project that might well end in complete l ninth nineteen thirty three after weeks of discussion there was a meeting at carson palace on the outskirts of genoa it was there that saudi arab government officials representing his majesty signed a concession covering roughly three hundred twenty thousand square miles this was the starting point of a new american business venture abroad but head there was a long long distance to travel huge investment years of effort and no end of patience and perseverance most important of all the job would require men party men determined men men who were willing to leave families and friends and journey halfway around the world on a quest that might end in failure men who could face hardship and monotony and still take it men like strong are strong it never heard of saudi arabia when he was asked back in one nine hundred thirty eight if he would like to go there that answer was easy for him he would not like to go for his money give him the peace and quiet asked to make a life career of oil in arabia they weighed it and decided and gradually they began to arrive carpenters machinist regular technician drillers executives too eager to extend a welcoming hand plan to the new arrival and who is that over their eyes you're another strong  forgotten back in the states that he had that traditional american characteristic hunger for adventure and challenge in the others had come to learn of the middle east and they found the going was to few outsiders had ever before been beyond the creative port of jeddah and the arabs were suspicious of these strange newcomers many of them were frankly hostile and were quite ready to show their feelings even the extended hand of friendship with except the grudgingly in the early days on top of all that it was a hundred twenty in the shade on many a day in summer sometimes soaring to one hundred forty in the sun they prepared to search for oil to quit the kind of senseless men who all through history have done such foolhardy things as believing that steam could run an engine or that crops would grow in the deserts of california or that our voice could carry over a equal to the state of california and texas combined since that first pain well established the mom has a major oil fields and saudi arabia and an oil country other fields have been discovered production has risen until in one hundred forty seven it reached close to nine hundred million from there more than one hundred thousand barrels daily flow through one of the world's largest underwater pipelines because of r n petroleum companies refinery and bahrain island products the project was approved by the joint chiefs of staff in one hundred forty three it was rushed to completion in one hundred forty five at a cost of approximately fifty million dollar all of which was put up by the company in this work about a thousand americans and five thousand saudi arabs were employed for one and a half year it's rated capacity was fifty thousand barrels daily but it has actually been turning out more than one hundred fifteen thousand barrels a day two hundred and thirty percent of its original rated capacity supplying this refinery require the drilling of additional oil and the building of pipelines to deliver crude oil from the