File 1421/1908 Pt 4 'Persia: oil; Anglo-Persian Oil Co and Bakhtiaris' [‎103r] (63/292)

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's j
PERSIA.
•''' ’
CONFIDENTIAL.
[29101] No. 1.
Anglo-Persian Oil Company to Foreign Office.—(Received July 24.)
Winchester House, Old Broad Street,
Dear Mr. Maxwell, London, July 21, 1911.
I AM in receipt of your letter of the 14th instant, enclosing an extract from a
despatch from His Majesty’s consul at Ahwaz relative to certain rumours current in
Persia as to the intention of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company with regard to the
disposal of the oil produced by the Bakhtiari Oil Company and the First Exploitation
Companies.
1 need hardly say that these rumours are quite without foundation, and as the j
circulation of such malicious reports is exceedingly detrimental to the interest of our j
company, I shall be much obliged if Lieutenant Ranking be requested to let it be 1
known that they are absolutely unfounded.
The companies in question were, as I think you are aware, formed to “ work oil in
the Bakhtiari country ” in accordance with the terms of the agreement with the khans,
and as the oil produced by them cannot obviously, for commercial reasons, be refined
in that country, these companies must (like 99 out of 100 of the oil companies in other
parts of the world), sell their oil in its crude state to whoever will buy it.
To enable these companies to get the best prices possible for their crude, the
Anglo-Persian Oil Company are, at great cost, laying a pipe-line from the Bakhtiari
country to the coast, and are erecting a refinery on the coast; and when the time comes
for fixing the price which the Anglo-Persian Oil Company are to pay the other
companies for their crude, that price will, of course, be fixed at a fair rate, based upon
the prices ruling for crude in other parts of the world.
If the oil obtained by the companies is abundant in quantity, as we have every
reason to suppose it will be, the price paid by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company to the
producing companies should give the latter a very satisfactory profit, and it is obviously
to the interests of the company that the Shah and the khans, who are shareholders in
these companies, should receive as good an interest as possible on their shares.
Yours sincerely,
C. GREENWAY.
[July 24.]
Section 3.
[2105 aa —3]