'File 39/7 (10/9) Kuwait Oil Concession' [‎39r] (77/88)

In the course of u*y visit to Persia, I managed to slip
in a quid: trip to Kuwait* On Monday, -*arch 17th ? I left
Abadan by A ,1.0*0 ♦ plane at 8 a .il. and returned five hours
later. This gave me barely four hours on the spot but, such
is the cofiipactness of the Kuwait Field, that even so short a
tiiLe suffices to give one a fair grasp of the layout and
operations•
2. I was met by Donald Campbell, seconded from Abadan as
Administrative Assistant to the Field-Superintendent* The
latter is ifrtrldfcf of Gulf GJLI 4 whan I ajriAvau ht just
off to an audience with the "Rular", but he found time to
give me a broad picture of the production storage and loading
set-up, Y/hich was usefully rounded out by Campbell in due
course.
3. I also met de Hemel, Personnel Manager, a keen young
Britisher with a most engaging personality, and every appear
ance of being the right man for the Job.
4. Campbell then took me by car to Achmedi (about 20 miles
south of the City of Kuwait) which is in the beginnings of
its development as the industrial centre of the field and
the residential area. There are no roads - in the strict
sense of the word - but the desert surface is hard and viable
for even heavy vehicles. Campbell Is an evident - and indeed
self-avowed - lover of Kuwait, the sort of man whose influence
and sympathy could hardly be better engaged; he beguiled the
Journey with a well-informed discourse on the place and its
inhabitants, end proved altogether an admirable guide.
5* The population of the Sheikhdom is some 90.000 souls 1
apart from the pastoral Bedouin, they are essentially a ship
building, -seafaring folk whose main activities have been
hitherto the carrying trade to the Malabar Coast and India,
and the pearl-fisheries of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Both these trades
are run cooperatively, the crews being tied to the owners by
debt and sharing the profits if any. Pearl-fishing has been
hard hit by the "cultural” industry. They strike the stranger
as a contented, unspoilt, self-reliant people, and one can but
hop* that the development of a vast oilfield at their very
door will enric their lives without debauching them.
Insh'allah.
sea-level - one commands a comprehensive view of the "Burghan
Hills” field about ten miles away to the westward, and the
loading terminal on the foreshore some five miles in the other
direction. Burghan "Hills” is a misnomer for they are just a
group of low contours - wells themselves being lower than
Achmedi and the oil having to be boosted up to the storage
there*