# Ras Tanura

Ras Tanura (Arabic: رأس تنورة, romanized: Ra's Tannūrah, lit. 'cape oven, cape brazier', presumably due to the unusual heat prevalent at the cape that projects into the sea) is a city in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia located on a peninsula extending into the Persian Gulf. The name Ras Tanura applies both to a gated Saudi Aramco employee compound (also referred to as "Najmah") and to an industrial area further out on the peninsula that serves as a major oil port and oil operations center for Saudi Aramco, the largest oil company in the world. Today, the compound has about 3,200 residents, with a few Americans and British expats.
Geographically, the Ras Tanura complex is located south of the modern industrial port city of Jubail (formerly a fishing village) and north across Tarut Bay from the old port city of (Al-)Dammam. Although Ras Tanura's port area is located on a small peninsula, due to modern oil tankers' need for deeper water, Saudi Aramco has built numerous artificial islands for easier docking. In addition, offshore oil rigs and production facilities have been constructed in the waters nearby, mostly by Saudi Aramco, Schlumberger, and Halliburton.

## Demography

Ras Tanura is one of four residential compounds built by ARAMCO in the 1940s and the only one located on the coast of the Persian Gulf itself. Ras Tanura refinery is surrounded by a heavily guarded security fence, and Saudi employees and their dependents may live inside the Najmah residential compound which is less heavily guarded. Built originally to allow expatriate oil company employees (mainly Americans) a degree of Western comfort and separation from the restrictions of Saudi and Islamic laws, the community today has shifted somewhat in line with the reduction of western residents into a multi-ethnic mosaic of Saudis, other Arab nationalities (e.g. Egyptian and Jordanian), Filipinos, Indians, Pakistanis, and a few Americans and British expats—all of whom live with English as the common language.

## Refinery

In 1940 a 3,000 barrels per day plant was completed at Ras Tanura, which operated only till 1945. The Ras Tanura Refinery was a war emergency measure, and so its construction was subject to approval by the military for the diversion of resources and it was rushed to completion. The cost of $50 million was however entirely covered by the company. Employment during the 1.5 year construction period was on the order of 1,500 Americans and 10,000 Saudi Arabs. It was initially designed for 50,000 barrels per day, but completed for an actual capacity of up to 115,000 in the latter part of 1945. As depicted in the Oil Weekly map, the refinery was connected to the Dammam field by 39 miles of 10-inch pipe. From the field a pipeline also supplied the nearby large refinery of the Bahrain Petroleum Company which had opened in 1937. The marine terminal was built to be able to load 4 tankers at once at a rate of 12,000 barrels per hour.

## Transportation
### Highway

Ras Tanura is connected by a single two-lane highway with the Dhahran–Jubail Highway, which links it with neighboring cities such as Jubail and Dammam as well as with the regional Aramco headquarters in Dhahran.

### Airport

The city is served by King Fahd International Airport.
Although there is a small airport in the city, Ras Tanura Airport, it is for the exclusive use of Saudi Aramco, mainly helicopters. The distance from the city center to the terminal in Dammam Airport is approximately 50 km (31 mi). However a current project is ongoing to shorten that distance to 40 km (25 mi) if the new road is completed.

## References to Ras Tanura in popular culture

A movie-length documentary production of the Saudi Aramco company-built towns, including the Ras Tanura employee camp Najmah, is the nostalgically-titled Home: The Aramco Brats Story, promoted and released with a trailer and DVD in December 2006.

## Selection of images

* Tarut Bay, seen from the International Space Station; Ras Tanura is on the north side of the bay
* Oil tanks in port
* Saudi Aramco Tank in Ras Tanura, 1980s.