Dammam Well No. 7 Monument

The oil well that struck black gold in 1938 and transformed Saudi Arabia

Dammam Well No. 7 — also called the Prosperity Well — is a monument marking the site where Standard Oil of California struck commercially viable oil on 4 March 1938, transforming Saudi Arabia from a poor desert country dependent on pilgrimage revenues into what would become the world's largest oil exporter. The well itself is preserved near the Ithra cultural complex in Dhahran.

The monument stands near the Ithra centre and can be visited as part of a trip to Dhahran. A small explanatory display gives context for the discovery and its consequences. The site is more symbolic than spectacular in itself, but it marks one of the hinge points of 20th-century world history.

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A story
The geologists assigned to drill in Dhahran had been drilling for years with nothing to show for it. Seven dry holes. The company was close to giving up when Well No. 7 was spudded in 1937. On 4 March 1938, it blew in with such force that a column of oil shot above the drilling rig. The subsequent discovery reshaped the 20th century.

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