Manifa mega-project captured in new book

Saudi Aramco’s Manifa oil field, with its distinctive causeway and network of drilling platforms arching gracefully into the Arabian Gulf, is now the subject of a new coffee table book. 

Produced and published by the company’s Public Relations Department, Manifa: where every grain of sand and every drop of water tells a story, captures in words and pictures the history, social, cultural, environmental and industrial context of the construction surrounding the world’s fifth-largest oil field.

But the book is more than just the tale of an oil field and its environmental setting. It is an illustrated exploration of how industrial ambition, human innovation, and natural landscapes and seascapes can co-exist in harmony. Over 146 pages, readers are invited to immerse themselves in how man and nature came together during the completion of a unique feat of modern engineering.

Few who have seen the Manifa oil field are likely to forget it. The Manifa Causeway arcs outward into the sapphire blue bay like a multi-legged salamander. Beneath it, under the shallow waters, lies a huge field of Heavy Arabian crude oil that is capable of producing 900,000 barrels per day.

Vivid photography is complemented by a writing style that informs and invites the reader into an absorbing story that is almost heroic in its depictions of the human effort and engineering triumphs. For Saudi Arabia, the Manifa Project is a shining example of the successes and creative solutions brought to bear by its Saudi engineers.