Word: messaoud
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Never Again." With the first Edjelé strike, the rush was on. In July 1956 came a first producing well at Hassi Messaoud, in a field now estimated at 800 sq. mi. Two more promising oilfields have been discovered within a 50-mile radius of Edjelé, and one of the world's largest natural gas deposits (estimated reserves: 28 trillion cu. ft.) has been discovered at Hassi R'Mel, only 80 miles below the Algerian border...
...climate was all but unbearable. At Hassi Messaoud the first oil drilling teams labored in 120° to 130° temperatures and through sandstorms, often came off an eight-hour shift near collapse. At Edjelé, welders putting together oil storage tanks learned that simply to touch the metal of the tanks meant a bad burn. The combination of Saharan sand and heat wears out mechanical equipment with startling rapidity; at Edjelé the average life of a Dodge truck engine is 7,500 miles...
Biggest difficulty of all lies in supplies, of which Hassi Messaoud alone consumes 2,400 tons a week. Almost everything but water (which is mercifully plentiful underground) has to be flown or trucked into the camps from Algiers. A truck driver on the Algiers-Edjelé run, accustomed to six or seven blowouts per trip, and to having his truck frequently immobilized by sandstorms for days on end, says: "Every time I reach Edjelé, I collapse more or less where I stand, and swear I will never make the run again...
...lure and keep the kind of men they need, the companies rely not on high salaries-top wages for an engineer are $700 a month-but on the pioneer spirit, a generous leave policy (up to one week in four in Algiers) and high living standards. Says a Hassi Messaoud executive: "Provided the mail is regular and the food is good, you can get Frenchmen to accomplish the impossible...
...Sahara in a new way the modern activities of a big part of our industry." With more immediacy, he talks of building a power plant (to run on local deposits of natural gas) at the oasis of In Salah and of building a full-fledged town at Hassi Messaoud...