A party of directors of the Iraq Petroleum Company is assembled in Palestine to complete plans for the official opening of the Iraq oil pipe-line to be held on Monday at Kirkuk in the presence of King Ghazi of Iraq, who will formally declare the line open.
The party is leaving for Bagdad tomorrow, some going by air from Jerusalem to Damascus, and others by overland route. They will return to Palestine on January 22, when ceremonies will be held at Haifa Terminal, with the participation of High Commissioner for Palestine, Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope.
The flow of Mosul oil into Haifa harbor along the Iraq oil pipe-line, marks the consummation of a great work that has been looked forward to for years as one of the most important developments in the economic life of Palestine.
On October 14, 1927, oil was struck near Kirkuk, an ancient Assyrian village, 200 kilometers from Mosul. It was a rich find. But crude oil has to be refined before it can be used, and the Near East has no facilities for such work. The oil, therefore, has to be piped to the Mediterranean and then shipped West.
Twin pipe-lines shaped like a funnel, well-constructed, one for the British, to end at Haifa, the other for the French, to end at Beirut carry the crude oil.
Along the two routes, marked by telegraph poles and sparse strung wires, the steel pipes were laid. The ground was first stem-rolled flat by a machine. To prevent depredation by man or the elements, the trench was dug unusually deep. Twelve pipes, 120 metres long, were trussed up, sol-
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
