United States Petroleum Influence and Saudi Industrial Development in the Aramco Handbook 1960

Aramco Oil Industry

First Edition

Lebkicher, Roy, George Rentz, and Max Steineke. Aramco Handbook, published in 1960, documents the information system through which the Arabian American Oil Company interpreted Saudi Arabia, Middle Eastern petroleum, and its own operations for company personnel and associated readers. Prepared by Aramco employees while the corporation was owned by four American oil companies, the volume combines technical instruction, company history, regional geography, religious and political narrative, and guidance on social conduct. It reveals how Aramco presented industrial development as a coordinated process linking geological exploration, refining, transportation, workforce management, and cross-cultural training, providing primary-source evidence for the study of United States–Saudi relations, corporate communications, petroleum infrastructure, expatriate employment, and the institutional production of knowledge about Saudi society. Aramco had transferred its headquarters from New York to Dhahran in 1952 but remained under American corporate ownership in 1960; Saudi equity participation did not begin until 1973.

Lebkicher, Roy, George Rentz, and Max Steineke, with contributions by other Aramco employees. Aramco Handbook. Dhahran, Saudi Arabia: Arabian American Oil Company, 1960. First edition. Printed in the Netherlands. 324 pages. Profusely illustrated with black-and-white photographs, diagrams, and maps, some printed in color. Original tan cloth lettered in black and brown with the Aramco emblem; no dust jacket noted. 4to. The five principal sections address the historical background of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, petroleum’s place in modern industry, the Aramco enterprise, Saudi government and society, and Arab culture and customs. A full-page photograph of the Kaaba accompanies a color map tracing seventh- and eighth-century Arab conquests, while oil-production chapters explain hydrocarbons, refining, storage, and distribution through diagrams and industrial photographs. An aerial view of the Ras Tanura refinery identifies such facilities as the “Catalytic Desulfurizer,” “Bulk Plant,” and “Crude Stabilizers,” with an inset showing piers described as capable of accommodating ten tankers. Additional spreads interpret the pilgrimage to Mecca through photographs of the Station of Abraham, the Well of Zamzam, and pilgrims at ritual sites. The final section supplies transliterated greetings, including as-salāmu ʿalaykum and kayf ḥālak, together with etiquette advice intended to regulate interactions between foreign employees and Saudi residents. Bibliographic records confirm the authors, date, publisher, and internally produced character of this edition.

The handbook’s extensive visual and technical documentation is inseparable from the corporate framework that shaped it. Maps, refinery plans, photographs, and process explanations preserve detailed evidence of Aramco’s operations and of Saudi landscapes, pilgrimage sites, and public customs, while the accompanying text repeatedly positions the company as the intermediary joining the Kingdom’s resources to international industry. Its cultural chapters translate complex religious and social practices into generalized guidance for expatriate personnel, demonstrating how corporate education supported the practical operation of the concession as surely as engineering manuals and infrastructure diagrams did. Light toning and faint soiling affect the cloth, with a gentle bump to one corner; interior clean and binding sound. Very good. A substantial record of the technical, cultural, and administrative knowledge through which Aramco trained personnel and represented its authority in Saudi Arabia at the beginning of the 1960s.

Item #22550

Price: $225.00