Saudi Arabia - The Oil Industrial Heritage in Saudi Arabia

01 Well N° 7, Dammam 26°19'15.30"N 50° 7'38.26"E 02 Trans Arab Pipeline (Tapline) 26°41'12.69"N 49°43'53.24"E 03 Jeddah Refinery 21°26'55.71"N 39°10'58.36"E 04 King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) 26°18'25.36"N 50° 8'35.90"E 05 Dhahran Camp 26°18'29.18"N 50° 7'44.07"E Industrialisation is a key theme of social and economic history in the last three centuries, yet industrial heritage related to the oil sector is still little understood at the global scale and is not represented in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Major places of oil industry are still under technical exploitation and business commitment. The ongoing transformation of Saudi Arabia’s economy, from exclusively oil-dependent to a more diversified and multiple one, paves now the way for the protection of oil-related industrial sites as industrial “vestiges”, as has already taken place for coal-based and for hydro-powered industries in other parts of the World. Saudi Arabia is recognized worldwide as a key player in the oil industry. The development of a modern Kingdom from inhospitable deserts in the span of a single generation — made possible by the discovery and exploitation of oil and gas — is a significant event in the history of the 20th century. This industrial revolution, and its global impact in shaping the economy of the contemporary world, were made possible by the development of industrial infrastructures (wells, refineries, pipelines, sea terminals, etc.) that constitute major achievements of human creativity and engineering. These sites are among the largest and most recognisable industrial complexes built during the 20th century, reaching an unrivalled scale and level of technological sophistication in the second half of the 20th century. They are now often undergoing profound transformations as more efficient and renewable forms of energy production are developed in the 21st century.