The promises and perils of petrohydrology: Hong Kong, the Persian Gulf, and the Lok On Pai desalter, 1963–1990

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

8-2026

Abstract

This article explores the history of Hong Kong's first desalination plant: the ill-fated Lok On Pai desalter (1975–1990). Built amid great geopolitical uncertainty over dependence on mainland Chinese water, the desalter instead was dependent on the importation of massive quantities of Middle Eastern oil. The desalter thereby rested on long-standing imperial networks linking Hong Kong via Singapore to the Persian Gulf. Inaugurated in 1975, however, the plant was caught in the turmoil of a transforming Middle East following the OPEC crisis of 1973 and the Iranian Revolution in 1979. By focusing on this desalter, the article variegates the geographies of Cold War Hong Kong. It shows the decisive influence in Hong Kong of a different geopolitical risk to the familiar Cold War binarism. So too, it works with theories of the global “petroleumscape” and “petrohydrology” to analyze the networks of hydrocarbons underwriting, and then destabilizing, late twentieth-century Hong Kong.

Keywords

Hong Kong; infrastructure; Middle East; oil; water

Discipline

Geography | History | International Relations

Research Areas

Integrative Research Areas

Publication

Journal of Asian Studies

Volume

85

Issue

3

First Page

587

Last Page

608

ISSN

0021-9118

Identifier

10.1215/00219118-12394302

Publisher

Duke University Press

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1215/00219118-12394302

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