Crown Prince Abdullah Tours Eastern Province
To Inaugurate New Development Projects

Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz visited the Eastern Province in October to inaugurate a number of new development projects, including hospitals, parks, roads, bridges and industrial plants, as well as Saudi Aramco’s Al-Hawiyya gas plant.

He began the five-day tour on October 14 in Dhahran by attending a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). Speaking on the occasion, he praised the role the university and its staff have played in the service of society.

Crown Prince Abdullah then attended a meeting of the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, whose Chairman, Prince Saud bin Thinayyan, said the two industrial cities established on the shores of the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea are now home to 30 industrial complexes, representing private investments totaling 180 billion Saudi riyals (48 billion U.S. dollars) and 86,000 jobs.

Crown Prince Abdullah on October 15 commissioned the third phase of the Al-Khobar desalination plant and drinking water distribution system. The plant now supplies 132 million gallons of water per day to Al-Khobar, Dhahran, Dammam, Seehat, Qateef, Safwa and Ras Tanura through an extensive pipeline network, and also generates 800 megawatts of electricity. Minister of Agriculture Dr. Abdullah Muammar said there are now 30 desalination plants in the Kingdom with a daily capacity of 739.5 million gallons of water and 5,000 megawatts of electricity.

Crown Prince Abdullah inaugurated the Saad Specialist Hospital, a medical complex with 507 beds, 14 operating rooms and a 48-bed intensive care unit, as well as special clinics for burns, heart patients, open-heart surgery and neurological surgery. He also opened the 300-bed King Abdulaziz National Guard Hospital, a new 377,000-square-foot medical complex in Al-Ahsa

Crown Prince Abdullah, accompanied by Second Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector-General Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, inaugurated Saudi Aramco’s Al-Hawiyya gas plant on October 17. Built at a cost of four billion dollars in the Ghawar oil field area, the plant is the first Saudi project for non-associated gas. Producing 1.5 billion cubic feet of non-associated gas daily, the facility will boost the Kingdom’s gas production by more than 30 percent. It also produces 160,000 barrels of hydrocarbon condensates and 1,000 metric tons of sulfur a day. The project includes a pipeline network to supply gas for the first time to the Riyadh area to fuel three electric power plants, which previously consumed crude oil. Gas-fired systems have freed up a considerable amount of crude for export and are more environmentally friendly.

Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi said the new plant has helped increase the Kingdom’s gas production from three billion cubic feet in 1990 to 5.8 billion cubic feet. He said output will reach seven billion cubic feet after the completion of Haradh plant next year.

Before leaving the Eastern Province on October 18, Crown Prince Abdullah  opened a new textile factory established by Al-Ahsa Development Company.