Qatr [Qatar] Oil Concession and Connected Documents, May-Jul 1935; Dubai Oil Concession and Connected Documents, Feb-Oct 1937; Sharjah Oil Concession and Connected Documents, Sep 1937-May 1938 (India Office Confidential Prints, Memos B444, B445, B458, B467) [‎156r] (31/62)

Article 13.—(a) The Company shall have free of cost the unrestricted use and
occupation of and surface rights over all uncultivated lands of the State which
the Company may need for the purpose of its operations and in particular
the Company shall have the right to select an area or areas of land chosen by the
Company with exclusive surface rights upon which to erect drilling rigs, pump-
stations, oil refineries, storage, terminal shipping and aircraft facilities and any
other works required for the Company's operations ; and the Company may lease
for such purposes any lands, houses or buildings with the consent of and on
conditions to be arranged with the proprietors thereof, but the terms of such lease
shall not be in excess of those ordinarily current in their respective localities.
(6) The Company shall acquire only such lands, houses and buildings as are
necessary for its operations under this Agreement. The Company shall inform the
Shaikh from time to time of the land, houses and buildings which it requires to
occupy for its operations; and land, houses and buildings previously acquired by
the Company from the Shaikh but found no longer necessary for its operations shall
be returned by the Company to the Shaikh free of cost.
Article 14.—(a) The Company shall have the right to purchase at current market
rates fuel, water, food, building and constructional materials and other supplies of
every kind in connection with its operations hereunder ; further the Shaikh grants
to the Company the right to construct new roads for motor and general traffic, and
to make use of all existing roads or tracks free of charge or taxes of any kind
whatever.
(h) The Company shall employ subjects of the Shaikh as far as possible for all
work for which they are suited under the supervision of the Company's skilled
employees, but if the local supply of labour should in the judgment of the Company
be inadequate or unsuitable the Company shall have the right to import labour,
preference being given to labourers from neighbouring Arab countries who will
obey the local laws. The Company shall also have the right to import skilled and
technical employees. The Company shall pay to the workmen it employs a fair
wage, such wage to be decided and stated by the Company at the time the workmen
are engaged.
Further, the fact of the Company employing subjects of the Shaikh shall not in
any way whatever alter the status of such employees in respect of their rights,
privileges and duties as subjects of the Shaikh, and such employees will remain in
all ways subject to the jurisdiction of the laws and under the legal authority of the
Shaikh in his capacity as the Ruler of the State of Dubai.
Article 15. The Shaikh shall give to the Company and its employees and
property all protection in his power from theft, highway robbery, assault, wilful
damage and destruction, and the Company may appoint in consultation with the
Shaikh and itself pay trustworthy guards who shall at all times be subjects of
the Shaikh unless the Shaikh permits otherwise to assist in protecting the property
of the Company and its employees. The Company shall erect at its own expense
suitable buildings for ihe accommodation of such guards at such places as the
Company shall decide.
Article 16. In measuring the substances for the purposes of royalty the factor
for conversion of the volume of oil into weight shall be such figure as may be
determined and agreed upon between the Shaikh and the Company after the
discovery of oil and the ascertainment of its specific gravity.
The Company shall measure the substances by a method customarily used in
good technical practice and the Shaikh by his representative duly authorised by
him shall have the right to observe such measuring and to examine and test what
ever appliances may be used for such measuring. Such representative shall comply
with all necessary and usual safeguards for the prevention of fire and other
accident; and shall make all examinations and tests at such times and in such
manner as will cause the minimum of interference with the Company's operations.
If upon such examination or testing any such appliance shall be found to be out of
order the Company will cause the same to be put in order at its own expense within
a reasonable time, and if upon any such examination aforesaid any error shall
be discovered in any such appliance, such error shall if the Shaikh so decides
after hearing the Company's explanation be considered to have existed for
three (3) calendar months previous to the discovery thereof or from the last occasion
of examining the same in case such occasion shall be within such period of three