'File 5/1 I Mineral and oil deposits in Kuwait territory: surveys' [‎18r] (35/216)

No/2392-758, date! Calcutta, the 7th May 1913,
From—II. H. Hayden, Esq , C.I.E., I.C.S., Director, Geological Survey of India,
To—The Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Commerce and
Industry, Simla.
In continuation of my letter No. 2017, dated tlio 3rd ApKl 1913, I have
the honour to forward herewith a copy of a report by Mr. E, H. Pascoe,
Assistant Superintendent in this Department, upon the prospects of obtaining
oil near Kuwait, Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
Prospects of obtaining oil near Kuwait> Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
Some 24 miles south of Kuwait, a small area of Tertiary rocks projects
above the surface of the Desert, and is
introduction. known as Burqan. I examined it between
the dates 2nd to 5th March, 1913.
Burqan is close to the rock known as Wara, and consists of some small
R u knolls and rising ground The knolls are
ridge-like and are grouped along or parallel
to the permiter of a broad ellipse, which represents in all probability a low flat
dome with its longer axis running approximately from north to south. The
monotony of the flat plain occupying the centre is relieved by a few additional
knolls. Comglomerate or conglomeratic sandstone, exactly similar to those at
Wara, caps all these knolls and ridges, and in all cases has a scarcely
appreciable dip. There is much sagging at its edges and a great deal of
scree, but here and there it is possible to observe what lies beneath it. Below
it, in the easternmost ridges, I found bands of ochreous sandstone, sandy clays
of variegated colours—red, pink, yellow, etc., a white kaolin-bearing sandstone,
and many large fragments of selenite or crystalline gypsum. Flakes of gypsum
occur in other parts of the hills, and the efflorescent salt in the central plain.
All this points to the exposure, or immediate proximity beneath the surface of
Dr. Pilgrim’s “ Pars *' series I am inclined to think the Pars beds are actually
exposed, the caps of conglomerate and conglomeratic sandstone representing
the basal bed of the Bakhtiari series. The Ears exposure would be about a
mile long by f- mile broad.
The geotectonic features appear to run, in a general way, somewhere
between north, south and north-west-south-east. This is borne out (i) by the
orientation of the Burqan dome and the
stluctu,e ' relative position of Wara Hill (a little west
of north from Burqan), (ii) by the general strike and trend of outcrops in Persia
and further south in Arabia, (Hi) by the trend of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and
Euphrates and Tigris Valleys, (tv) by the direction of the low flat swell-ridges
observed and mapped by Captain Shakespear further inland. The eastern slope
of these flat swells is considerably more gradual than the western, a
circumstance conformable with the chart of the Gulf which shows a very
gentle eastward shelving along the Arabian side but a comparatively steep
drop into deep water along the Persian coast. From this we may deduce that
easterly-dipping beds cover a greater proportion of the total area than do
westerly-dipping beds. The dome at Burqan is a very gentle one.
A little bituminous earth is found in the central plain.
The prospects of obtaining an oil supply depend Oil principally upon (j)
0>i the age and the capacity for storage
of the rocks, (ii) structure, {Hi) position
with regard to the oil “ belt.” The age of the beds is favourable, if it is correct
to assume they belong to the Ears, since this is the oil-bearing series in Persia.
There is no reason to believe the nature of the beds beneath Burqan should be
different from that of the Ears in Persia, and they may be looked upon therefore
as sufliciently porous to retain oil in workable quantities. The structure, if
correctly diagnosed, is also favourable, a gentle dome in fact being an excellent
C19FD
\ ^