Trans-Arabian Pipeline

Tapline, the 1950 oil pipeline from eastern Saudi Arabia to the Mediterranean coast at Sidon in Lebanon.

Overview

Built by an Aramco affiliate after the Second World War, Tapline ran more than 1,200 kilometers from Abqaiq area fields across Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Golan Heights region of Syria to a terminal at Sidon, saving tankers the long trip around Arabia and the tolls of the Suez Canal. When it opened in 1950 it was among the longest oil pipelines in the world. Transit fee disputes, the 1967 war, sabotage and the economics of supertankers eroded it, and flows to Lebanon ended in the 1970s, with remaining service to Jordan stopping in 1990. Its pumping stations seeded towns across northern Saudi Arabia.