Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

CHAPTER VII
OIL INDUSTRIALIZATION CREATES MODERN-INDUSTRIAL URBAN
FORMS: THE CASE OF ARAR
In chapter six and seven I will investigate the effects brought about by the formation
of the new nation-state on the built forms of smaller Saudi settlements, Arar and Huraimla.
In this chapter, I will discuss the impact of oil industrialization on the emergence of the new
town of Arar, built in the late 1940s. The discovery of vast oil reserves in the Kingdom
has been the catalyst of an unprecedented urbanization process. New cities and towns were
born in response to the development of a complex network of oil drilling, processing,
refineries and loading facilities. The goal of this chapter is, first, to highlight the impact of
oil industrialization on the birth and growth of Arar, under the auspices of the modern
nation-state; and, second, to outline the relationship between state-led development and
planning, and the impact of such intervention on Arar's urban development and form.
Arar has a population of 65,000 inhabitants largely involved in state-created and
related employment, and the supporting commercial services. Arar was chosen as the
second unit of analysis in this study for its smaller population and the nature of its genesis:
unlike Riyadh and Huraimla, which both evolved from pre-industrial, agrarian forms, Arar
grew from a modern planned origin. It originated as an industrial compound and evolved
as an industrial camp to house the working force involved in the construction of the Trans
Arab Pipeline (Tapline) during the 1940s by the nascent oil industry. The decision by the
Tapline consortium to establish several pump stations along the 1069 miles pipe line
carrying oil from the Eastern Saudi Province to Sidon, Lebanon, on the Mediterranean Sea,
resulted in the creation of nuclei for new settlements on the otherwise barren desert
expanse, hitherto used by Bedouins and caravans. As such, Arar owes its existence to the
emergence of the economic environment and political order under the new nation-state,
and, thus, by exploring its development we can examine the impact of the government in
shaping the contemporary urban process and form.
I. LOCATION
Arar's undesirable physical as well as locational qualities explains the lack of
settlement in the area in the past. Arar was named after one of the two major wadi beds