"ملف ‏10/1 IX الامتياز النفطي بالبحرين" [و‎‎٥‎٦] (٥٢٢/١٢٣)

2.
(v) Article XIX. We must, I fear, press our
proposal that this should be amended to provide that
"correct geological plans and records shall be open to
inspection by the Sheikh". As I explained to you, this
is a provision very widely accepted, which appears in the
I.?.G., 3.G.D., and A.P.O.C. concessions as well as in
Trinidad, v/nile in this country there is a statutory
provision requiring operators to furnish His Majesty's
orovernment with all geological information which the
Geological Survey Department might require. There is,
tnerefore, substantial precedent for it. On the other
hand, we should be quite ready to insert a provision
that the geological reports should be regarded as
confidential for a period if the Company wished for this;
and in the event of the revised wording which we have
suggested being accepted, we should also be prepared to
agree that the Company should be relieved from providing
this full confidential information for the first five
years oi the currency of the mining lease.
3. Apart fran the points referred to in the preceding
paragraph, we have discussed at considerable length the question
of minimum royalty (any variation in the existing arrangements
regarding which will of course necessitate certain amendments
of the draft mining lease supplementary to those discussed
abov^) arid I have put certain proposals to you on this point
for consideration. I understand that you will communicate
further on this subject with me in due course. You will
remember that our acceptance of certain of the modifications
suggested by the Company is closely connected with the
reaching of a satisfactory settlement regarding it.
Yours sincerely,
(Sgd.) J.G.Laithwaite.