The Kirkuk-Mediterranean pipeline was a mixed 10/12-inch twin crude oil pipeline from the oil fields in Kirkuk, located in the former Ottoman vilayet of Mosul in northern Iraq, through Transjordan to Haifa in mandatory Palestine (now in the territory of Israel); and through Syria and a short stretch of what was to become the state of Lebanon to Tripoli.

After the Fall of France for about one year of conflict in the Middle East, different parts of the pipeline system were in the hands of opposing forces.

During the Suez crisis, the northern branch was sabotaged by the Syrian government in solidarity with Egypt and remained shut down for 4 months, followed by a slow recovery to prior levels.

[8] The Ajax was a 400 mile, 65,000 bbls/day, twin 10-inch line from Glenn Pool (near Jenks, Oklahoma) to Wood River (near Alton, Illinois) and was completed in 1930 or 1931.

It had however at the end of 1929 reconditioned (cleaned) its 370 or 400 mile 10-inch 25,000 bbl/day crude oil pipeline from Cooks Ferry, on the Ohio River in Western Pennsylvania to the Bayway Refinery in New Jersey and now used it to transport gasoline in the opposite direction from east to west.

[13] IPC signed conventions regulating the transit of oil with Mandatory ... On October 16, 1932 aviation became available when one 3-engine 8-passenger Avro 618 Ten and one single-engine 4-passenger DH.50 arrived at Samakh.

[29] The Iraqi Petroleum Company in October 1934 published a 125-page report: The Construction of the Iraq-Mediterrnean Pipe-Line — A Tribute to the Men Who Built it.

With the tanks at the terminal sitting at 220 feet above sea level, gravity loading was used which could be assisted with lower power pumps and deliver 1,000 tons of oil per hour.

Construction began in October 1938 and production started on November 29, 1939, not too long after the outbreak of World War II and due to a crash program well ahead of schedule.

Oil arriving in Tripoli was brought to Haifa by tankers (one-way distance of 81 nautical miles[49]), though this arrangement was not part of the original plan for the refinery.

[46] In March 1947 the construction of a fourth unit of the same capacity was about to begin,[51] work on the new 16-inch loop line from Kirkuk was already underway at that point.

The refinery shut down indefinitely on April 12, 1948 due to a strike of Arab workers following an attack in which several of them were injured.

In June 1950 an agreement was reached to increase production to 20,000 bbl/day, saving an estimated $3,000,000 annually to Israel and covering 65 percent of the country's gasoline needs.

Israel also started train runs to Haifa from their own recently discovered field at Heletz at a rate of merely 600 bbl/day in 1956.

The northern branch was however not put into operation until early in 1943[65] (or late 1942, suggested by Bureau of Mines statistics) and refining capacity was lacking, both locally and in allied parts of Europe.

The Italian submarine Scire was sunk on August 10, 1942 during an attempt to attack the port of Haifa with combat divers.

[71] In the summer of 1939 news out of London indicated that IPC was soon going to call bids for materials for a new 16-inch loop to its Mediterranean pipeline system.

[80] One section of 20 miles between the River Jordan and Haifa remained to be laid before deliveries could commence when work was stopped because of the unsettled conditions.

Continued attempts to circumvent Haifa for an alternative outlet in Lebanon were hampered by the refusal of the Lebanese government to grant right-of-way permissions for the needed construction.

[82] In the summer of 1961 the IPC handed over its assets in Jordan to the government, consisting of 200 miles of pipeline and pumping stations H-4 and H-5.

The Jordanian government planned to distribute water from a plentiful untapped source at Azraq (due south of H-5).

[86] In November 1949 an extension of the small topping plant at the Tripoli terminus started production with capacity increased to 11,000bbl/day.

[88] The Kirkuk–Baniyas pipeline (300,000bbl/day) between Kirkuk and a terminal some 50 miles to the north of Tripoli, outside of Lebanon territory, started preliminary production in April 1952.

In early September 1952 IPC completed[97] a 134 mile, 12-inch pipe between the Ain Zalah field (see map [o][98]) and K-2 with production there commencing in October.

Ain Zalah was discovered in the concession west of the Tigris in 1940 and was the fourth field in Iraq to produce (after Naft Khana,[99] Kirkuk in 1934 and Zubair in early 1952[100]).

[102] The Ain Zalah field was briefly captured by the Islamic State during the month of August 2014 and the damage caused was estimated at $5 million.

The Westinghouse Brake and Signal Co., Ltd. provided combination units of a transformer and a selenium rectifier housed in a common cooling oil bath, the whole device bulky enough to require a ladder to reach the top.

[110] A pair of aluminum wires originating at pumping stations were suspended from the telephone masts to distribute 11kV single phase AC current to the rectifiers.

When subsequently analyzed it was found that this protection was not performing miracles, as expected for desert conditions where infrequent rain tends to produce inhomogeneous concentration of salts near the surface.

The investigation also included a tally of recorded leaks for the 12-inch line (note the peak in 1957 due to repressurization stresses after the month long Suez crisis shutdown).