Maywood plant in Los Angeles. Consolidated was the only concern in the country prepared to manufacture a sufficient quantity of pipe larger than 26 inches in diameter.

And in having the pipe manufactured, Tapline gave early evidence of the enterprise which was to characterize the entire project. The undertaking was of great import - nationally and internationally, economically and politically - and so time was important. Under such conditions there have been occasions when Federally-operated jobs have been put through on a cost-is-no-object basis. But Aramco and Tapline, their co-owners among the great oil companies and the nearly 600,000 stockholders of all concerned, couldn't afford to do business on that basis. Maximum economy consonant with maximum efficiency was always the rule. So that principle started operating in the shipment of pipe from California.

Tapline ordered its pipe to be built, half of it 31 inches in diameter and the other half 30 inches. Then each 30-inch length was nested in a 31-inch length, and even in the 30-inch lengths much material such as cement was stowed. So before the project really began, the shipping cost of the pipe was reduced by more than half and the speed of delivery was more than doubled.

It was decided to lay the pipe line as the surveyors had worked, beginning at each end simultaneously. Contracts were let to International Bechtel, Inc., for construction of the eastern section of the line and to Williams Brothers Corporation for the western end. Bechtel had not only the longest section, but it also had to build its own terminal.

Beirut, near Sidon on the Mediterranean end, could handle ocean shipping, but there just wasn't any suitable place on the Persian Gulf. The oil port of Ras Tanura was too far to the south. It was planned to have the eastern terminal tie in with the gathering system for Aramco's producing fields and to have Tapline proper start at Qaisumah. So as there wasn't any suitable port it was decided to make one.

The location decided on was 125 miles from the nearest habitation, 40 miles from the nearest potable water. It had nothing whatever in its