Al-Khobar Port

Al-Khobar Port is a marine pier located in al-Khobar City in the Eastern Province. It was established by Standard Oil Company of California, abbreviated as “Socal” (later renamed “Saudi Aramco”), in the mid-1940s. The port was used to export the first oil shipment from the Kingdom in the first week of September 1938.

The first employees of the Standard Oil Company of California (Socal) arrived in al-Jubayl from Bahrain on September 23, 1933, after the company signed an oil exploration concession agreement with the Saudi government. At that time, al-Jubayl was a small coastal village located about 105 km north of Dammam. The workers at that time had to wade through the seawater with their equipment to reach the shore, as there was no pier for ships carrying equipment and passengers to dock.

The increase in Socal's activities and its need for heavy equipment prompted the construction of a rocky marine pier in deep waters. This allowed small boats and barges to dock, facilitating the transport of heavy materials and enabling the movement of the company’s employees to and from Bahrain. The pier was located near Dhahran City, the site of the company's operations. Geologists selected the pier location in al-Khobar after examining aerial photographs of coral reefs and marine channels. At that time, al-Khobar was a small village inhabited by fishermen.

The construction of al-Khobar Port in 1934 was led by drilling engineer, platform builder, and mechanic Bill Eltest, who worked at 'Socal.' He, in turn, assigned petroleum engineer Floyd Ohliger to supervise the construction of the al-Khobar pier. Ohliger used limestone rocks extracted from the seabed, known as “Faroush.” The company employed between four hundred and five hundred Saudi workers for this task. They collected rocks during low tide, transported them in sailboats to the shore, and then to the construction site, where the rocks were arranged in two parallel walls in the water. Additionally, a road was built between al-Khobar and Dhahran for vehicle access. The construction of the pier was completed in 1935.

'Socal' constructed a pipeline to transport oil from Dhahran to al-Khobar after discovering large quantities of oil in Dammam Well No. 7 (later named the Well of Prosperity) in March 1938. The company also built a storage and loading station at al-Khobar Port to export oil shipments to Bahrain, beginning in September 1938. Umm al-Qura Newspaper documented this event in a news article published in its issue dated September 9, 1938, titled "Oil Export from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: The First Export by the Company Undertaking Oil Exploration in al-Hasa."

While the first Saudi oil shipment was exported via al-Khobar Port, the first official Saudi oil shipment was exported from Ras Tannurah Port the following year, specifically on May 1, 1939, in the presence of Founding King Abdulaziz Bin Abdulrahman Al Saud. A sixty-nine km pipeline was constructed, extending from the Dammam field to Ras Tannurah Port, where the oil tanker 'D.G. Scofield' docked. King Abdulaziz turned the valve himself to load it with the first Saudi oil shipment to be exported abroad.

The role of al-Khobar Port came to an end in the following decades, after the establishment of Ras Tannurah Port in 1939 and King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam in 1961. The port continued to be used for passenger transport between the Eastern Province and Bahrain until the opening of the King Fahd Causeway between the Kingdom and Bahrain in 1987, which ended al-Khobar Port’s role. The port was subsequently abandoned, with most of its parts buried, though its extension into the sea is still visible.