Riyadh, September 22, 2022, SPA – The story of exploring oil in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia started on May 29, 1933 when the late King Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud signed a concession agreement to explore oil with Standards Oil of California Company (SOCAL) after exploring oil in neighboring Bahrain pinned hope for having a reserve of oil in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Following the signing, geologists on September 23, 1933 flocked to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and headed for Al-Jubail coastal village that is some 105 kilometers away to the north of Dammam, which highlights the power and resilience of the late unifying King Abdulaziz and perseverance to achieve success. On their arrival day, they had a firsthand look at Jabal Al-Barri that is 11 kilometers to the south of Al-Jubail. A week later, they headed south and conducted a geological test on Jabal Al-Dhahran hills but to no avail for almost two years. On April 30, 1935, it was decided to start work by digging Dammam Well No. 1; following seven months of uncertainty of hope and despair, the well produced a powerful batch of gas and some oil when the drilling depth reached around 700 meters, but an equipment failure forced the drilling crew to stop the well's flow and blocked it with cement, and Dammam Well No. 2 was better. When the well was tested in June 1936, 335 barrels per day flowed from it. A week following that test, and after acid treatment, production of oil flowing from the well stood at 3,840 barrels per day, which encouraged drilling of Dammam Wells 3, 4, 5 and 6 without waiting to confirm that production will be in commercial quantities or recognizing the size of the field discovered. A decision was then issued in July to prepare Dammam Well No. 7 as a deep test well. Increased workload required more men, gear and materials, and the workplace was unable to accommodate the increase in the number of workers. By the end of 1936, the number of Saudi workers had increased to 1,076, in addition to 62 non-Saudi workers, and things were supposed to be going normally, but that time witnessed the unexpected, Dammam Well No. 1 failed after digging to a depth of more than 975 meters. Meanwhile, Dammam Well No. 2 was found to be moist, which meant that it produced water mainly, as water production was 8 or 9 times higher than its oil production volume, and the production of Dammam Well No. 3 did not exceed 100 barrels of heavy oil per day, with 15% of this production comprising water. Wells 4, 5, and 6 were proven dry. Later, specifically in the first week of March, 1938, Well No. 7 started to bring hope at a depth of 1,440 meters, where it produced 1,585 barrels of oil on March 4, which went up to 3,590 barrels and then 3,690 on March 7, before dropping to 2,130 barrels nine days later, before production resumed increasing to 3,732 barrels five days later and to 3,810 barrels the next day. Wells 2 and 4 reached the level of the Arab geological zone and showed hope through yielding good results and joy spread across the work camp in Dammam. The late King Abdulaziz’s visit to the area came in conjunction with the finish of the oil pipeline that connected Dammam Field with Ras Tannurah Port over a length of 69 kilometers, where an oil tanker was waiting for supplies. King Abdulaziz turned on the valve with his hand to fill the tanker with the first shipment of Saudi oil on May 1, 1939. --SPA 14:16 LOCAL TIME 11:16 GMT 0013 www.spa.gov.sa/w1788226