Book Reviews
Out in the Blue is an interesting book for students of Saudi Arabia and ARAMCO. The book was written by Thomas Barger, whose career with the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO) spanned 32 years, 1937-69. Mr. Barger retired from ARAMCO in 1969 as chairman of the Board of Directors. By the time of his death in 1984, he had compiled this book containing letters he wrote to his young bride, Kathleen, during his first assignment in Saudi Arabia. He was working as a field geologist for the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC), which would eventually become ARAMCO.
A native of North Dakota with a degree in Mining and Metallurgy from the state university, Mr. Barger found few opportunities for employment, as a result of the Depression. Finally he obtained a three-year assignment in Saudi Arabia with CASOC, which had a concession for exploring and drilling for oil (no commercial quantities had yet been found). Mr. Barger went off to New York City, his departure point for Saudi Arabia, and married Kathleen. After their honeymoon, he departed for the kingdom, and she went back to North Dakota.
Mr. Barger spent most of his early days in Saudi Arabia away from headquarters in Dhahran exploring the Rub Al Khali and other areas of the CASOC concession. Although there wasn’t much in the way of headquarters in Dhahran in 1937, Mr. Barger displays a typical field person’s frustrations with bureaucracy and decision making. Mr. Barger worked for the legendary Max Steineke, CASOC’s chief geologist in the early days of the concession. He was sent by Steineke to the field to do geological mapping of the concession area. The field parties that he led or co-led consisted of guides, cooks, drivers and soldiers assigned by the king and emir of the Eastern Province. These areas had had very few, if any, visitors from the West, and the soldiers were there to protect them and facilitate their interactions with the local tribes they met along the way. The numbers of soldiers were often greater than necessary, but CASOC paid their salaries as part of the field parties.
Mr. Barger was a careful observer of not only the geology but the people he dealt with. He quickly learned Arabic, and he and his party would go out in the field for weeks and months at a time, interacting with local tribesmen as well as senior government officials. Most of his contacts were with the Deu, whose survival skills he came to admire. A significant part of the geological mapping effort involved carefully locating places on the map for future more detailed geologic and geophysical work. The location of water wells was critical for the purpose. A number of the guides had the uncanny ability to remember every rock in the vast territory, even if they had only been there once in their lives. In reading the letters in this book, one learns much about the people, the customs, the geography and the flora and fauna of the kingdom. What comes across time and time again is how tough a place Saudi Arabia is to survive in, with its harsh weather and lack of water. Towns sometimes had to be abandoned because of years of drought.
Mr. Barger did not see his wife for almost three years after he arrived in Saudi Arabia in 1937. Their loving letters were expressive of the hope that Kathleen would be able to travel to Saudi Arabia to live with him. Unfortunately, there were always factors that prevented it. Initially, there was the issue of whether there was oil. In 1938 when Dammam 7, the first commercially producing well, finally came in, there was a rapid expansion of personnel needed to construct the infrastructure for processing and exporting the oil. This delayed the plans to build married housing. The next issue that postponed their plan was whether there was more oil in the kingdom. This was clarified with the discovery of the Abqaiq field in 1940. But then World War II broke out and CASOC officials would not let wives relocate to the kingdom. Kathleen was not able to join her husband until 1945.
Mr. Barger eventually moved from Geology to Government Relations at CASOC, which was an ideal venue for his language ability and knowledge of the people and the country. During his long career with ARAMCO, Mr. Barger worked hard to develop and promote Saudis in the company and was the architect of the company’s home-ownership program which allowed so many Saudi employees to build and own homes in the kingdom.
Mr. Barger was one of ARAMCO’s pioneers, contributing to the early acquisition of knowledge about Saudi Arabia and its people. He was one of the group of 100 men who managed the concession area during the war. Their work positioned ARAMCO for the period of explosive growth that was to take place with the discovery in 1948 of the Ghawar field. The largest oil field in the world, Ghawar continues to produce vast amounts of oil and gas.
The Bargers’ decision that Tom would continue to work alone in Saudi Arabia during the war was difficult. Kathleen was not able to join him for five years. But it was a great decision for CASOC and ARAMCO. Tom Barger was the right man for the kingdom and a part of the significant development that took place in its oil industry. He also set the stage for Saudi nationals to take over and successfully operate ARAMCO, today called Saudi Aramco, the largest oil-producing company in the world.
