60 Miles Of Pipes
p. 21 · Read in the full issue
Oil Development in Dutch N. Guinea
THE Governor of Netherlands New Guinea (Dr. Jan van Baal) has put into operation a 60-miles pipeline for the trans portation of oil from Mogoi and Wasian to Moetoeri, on the coast of Netherlands New Guinea.
Within 11 years, 500 Papuan workers and 160 Dutch technicians have successfully laid this pipeline through inhospitable and desolate areas in the southern part of Vogelkop.
Over 500,000 tons of earth had to be moved, whilst the last 6-miles section of the pipeline had to be laid through a coastal malaria-in fested swamp. Moreover, the swamp made it necessary to raise the pipeline 1 ft. 8 in. above the land, for which 9,500 concrete poles had to be erected.
The pipeline, which has a diameter of 8 inches, ends at Moetoeri, in two tanks, each with a capacity of 20,000 tons. Tankers of up to 30,000 tons can now load oil from this Territory’s new oil fields, alongside a jetty, at the rate of 2,000 tons per hour.