Although Ras Tanura's port area is located on a small peninsula, due to modern oil tankers' need for deeper water, Saudi Aramco has built numerous artificial islands for easier docking.

In addition, offshore oil rigs and production facilities have been constructed in the waters nearby, mostly by Saudi Aramco, Schlumberger, and Halliburton.

Ras Tanura is one of four residential compounds built by ARAMCO in the 1940s and the only one located on the coast of the Persian Gulf itself.

Built originally to allow expatriate oil company employees (mainly Americans) a degree of Western comfort and separation from the restrictions of Saudi and Islamic laws, the community today has shifted somewhat in line with the reduction of western residents into a multi-ethnic mosaic of Saudis, other Arab nationalities (e.g. Egyptian and Jordanian), Filipinos, Indians, Pakistanis, and a few Americans and British expats—all of whom live with English as the common language.

The Ras Tanura Refinery was a war emergency measure, and so its construction was subject to approval by the military for the diversion of resources and it was rushed to completion.