This Day in History (1977): Underwater Welding Operation Repairs Ju'aymah Crude Line

From the July 6, 1977, edition of The Arabian Sun

"It was a nice marriage of a new piece of Aramco equipment and a fairly unusual underwater welding technique."

This was the view of Howard Jensen of the Terminal Maintenance Division and George Rader of Consulting Services, summing up a recent undersea repair operation that put a 48-inch crude loading line at Ju'aymah back in operation. The operation saved a great deal of time and money over other repair methods, and introduced a number of firsts to Aramco and the offshore oil industry.

For a start, it was the first time Aramco had a chance to use its newest piece of equipment, the ARB-1, or jack-up maintenance barge, in a situation that required its highly sophisticated equipment.

It was also the first time Aramco undertook to build its own dry weld habitat -- a 15' x 10' x '12 water-tight steel housing that was lowered 110 feet to the pipeline, thereby enabling diver-welders to effect repairs in a dry habitat.

And it was the first time a WeldBall (a special form of ball and socket joint) as large as 48 inches was used to repair an underwater pipe.

Each of these firsts was an important component in a repair operation that reconnected the secondary crude-loading line between the Ju'aymah control platform and Single Point Mooring 33.

Caption for top photo: Crane blocks ride out in front of the new Aramco Repair Barge-1 as she is towed by tug, left, into position for the highly successful underwater pipeline repair operation conducted at Ju'aymah.

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