Jubail: An Industrial Giant Rises From the Arabian Desert
ProjectPro was invited to Jubail in Saudi Arabia to facilitate their popular course MBA in Engineering and Construction Project Management. Twenty enthusiastic delegates attended from 17 to 19 March and were very appreciative of the subject knowledge of Terry Deacon, the facilitator.
If the excellent standard of service and catering at the local Intercontinental Hotel is a reflection of the city’s standards, then it bodes well for the future.
Once a sleepy Persian Gulf fishing village, Jubail is now a bastion of Saudi Arabia’s industrial might and arguably hosts the largest civil engineering project in the world. After investing billions of dollars and decades of effort, the Saudi government has created an enormous economic engine in the middle of the desert – Jubail Industrial City.
To put it in perspective, Jubail Industrial City covers 1 016 square kilometres, which makes it larger than some countries. To prepare the site, workers levelled entire dunes and shifted more than 35 million cubic metres of sand.
But the megaproject is still many years away from completion. The first phase of the infrastructure behemoth, Jubail I was launched by The Royal Commission in the mid-1970s. It includes the construction of facilities for more than a dozen primary industries, including a steel mill, petro-chemical plants and a refinery. Jubail is more than just a manufacturing centre. It’s also a community of over 105 000 residents. This means the urban planning called for housing, mosques, a golf course, more than a dozen shopping centres and 24 schools.
In addition, Jubail boasts the largest combined desalination and power plant in the world, pumping more than 850 000 cubic metres of water per hour. Jubail produces 7 percent of the world’s petro-chemical products and contributes more than 11 percent of Saudi Arabia’s
non-oil gross domestic product. Construction of Jubail II, located about 8 kilometres west of the first site, will double the capacity.
The extension includes a refinery that will cost about US$10 billion, with completion expected in early 2013. It will have the capacity to process 400 000 barrels of Arabian heavy crude oil per day.
As in any city, the Jubail masterplan included transportation infrastructure. The team has expanded the port for an 80-hectare petro-chemical quay with five new berths to allow room for massive tankers up to 230 metres long and carrying as much as 80 000 tons
of liquid petro-chemical products. The team is also working on a 195-kilometre railway that will traverse Jubail I and II to connect local industries to the ports. Targeted for completion by 2014, the first phase will focus on Jubail I, linking the new Ras al Zawr line and the Dammam railway with the port, creating spurs to all of the industries. The second phase will connect Jubail II’s industries to the network, with completion hinging on the schedule of Jubail II.
The Saudi government has established a comprehensive program for Jubail to monitor air and water quality, manage solid and industrial waste, and study wildlife. Every five minutes, nine stations in the city measure the air for up to 30 components, including carbon monoxide and ammonia. That information is then wirelessly transmitted to a central computer for analysis. At the same time, 13 stations closely monitor water quality. Electronic probes measure factors such as salinity, dissolved oxygen, temperature and acidity. Water samples are then analyzed for potential problems, including the presence of heavy metals, with the results stored in a database. In addition, Jubail’s wastewater is recycled and reused for landscaping purposes. The excess is pumped into the desert, which has created an ideal environment for Sabkhat al- Fasl, a popular bird-watching spot that draws more than 20 000 birds during peak migration.
The economic downturn may be squeezing funding for projects and development work in many countries , but Saudi Arabia is investing strongly in infrastructure projects. Unlike other economies in the world, and especially in some of the neighbouring Gulf Coopera
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