Bechtel hired Wallie Ballor in 1944 to install a high voltage line from Dhahran to Ras Tanura as part of the construction of the refinery at Ras Tanura. With two crews of installers - one Italian and the other Saudi, he installed power poles between the towns and wired them up. It was a thankless task, digging deep post holes in the sand and sabkha every 50 yards or so, and raising the 40 foot poles in the heat and humidity and in spite of shammals (sandstorms). After he was done he helped wire up the refinery itself, no small task in itself.

His photographs are a rare look at a contractor’s life in the great postwar expansion of Aramco and a reminder that it was the efforts of countless people from all walks of life that built the company that endures to this day.

Some of his photos can be seen at the Wallie Ballor Gallery

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