This Day in History (1977): 10,000 bbl tanks moved to NGL site

From the May 11, 1977, edition of The Arabian Sun

When the first of two new 740-ton high-pressure storage tanks nestled down onto its foundation at the Ju’aymah NGL site in mid-April, it did so with an ease quite foreign to any object so gigantically sized. One of a pair of cylindrical surge drums 125 feet long and 26 feet in diameter, the tank had completed an ocean voyage of 7,584 miles, disembarked, and arrived “home” with such little incident it stood as proof that planning pays.

The identical twins, latest entries on Aramco’s list of “biggest ever,” are the world’s largest prefabricated high-pressure storage tanks for natural gas liquids. Weighing 742.5 tons each, they have a shell thickness of 3.78 inches and were designed to withstand pressures of 550 pounds per square inch. They will be used to hold 10,000 barrels each of raw NGL until it can be processed.

The surge drums were designed by Fluor’s Haarlem office in The Netherlands, and by the time designers’ sketches were distributed, a comprehensive study was already underway to determine the best method of transport. Details were worked out during the 10 months the drums were under manufacture in the IHI plant in Yokohama, Japan.

Aramco’s Materials Supply organization is assigned overall responsibility for planning and coordinating the movement of all heavy lifts from factory to construction site. Many organizations, however, participated in this project.

On March 16 the tanks left Yokohama lashed down in tandem on the deck of the Inagua Light. Twenty-five days later they arrived at Ras Tanura’s West Pier, and the work of discharging the first vessel began the following day.

Also on this day

2011 — An earthquake of magnitude 5.1 hits Lorca, Spain. The earthquake was the worst in the region since a tremor struck west of Albolote, Granada in 1956

2000 — India’s population officially reaches 1 billion. Astha Arora is named India’s billionth baby

1995 — More than 170 countries agree to extend the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons

1997 — The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill that would last six months

1997 — Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of their rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format

1981 — Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "Cats" (based on poetry by T. S. Eliot) directed by Trevor Nunn first premieres in the West End, London

1970 — The 1970 Lubbock tornado in Texas kills 26 and causes $250 million in damage. It was in its time the costliest tornado in U.S. history, damaging nearly 9,000 homes and inflicting widespread damage to businesses, high-rise buildings, and public infrastructure

1894 — Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike. The strike helped shape national labor policy in the United States during a period of deep economic depression

1857 — As part of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British

330 — The newly built city of Constantinople (Byzantium) is dedicated and becomes the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire