'File 5/1 III Kuwait Oil Company' [‎9v] (23/766)

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Securiug at considerable expense the concession then looked upon by others as of very doubtful value,
he sent his drillers in the year 1901 to the area of Chia Sourkh, north-east of Baghdad, where for
many years a primitive oil industry b*d been established at Kasr-i Shirh..
After considerable work had been done, oil was obtained at this point, but it proved to hare
only a local value as the region was too far from the sea to allow a pipe-line to be laid through Persian
territory tn order that the oil could be shipped to the great world markets. Undiscouraged by hi« flrst
disappointment, Ifr D’Arcy sent his drillers to bore fresh wells at a point near Ran) Hormuz in the
Karun River area. These tests gave poor results, and Mr.D'Arey having spent by this time close upon
3»0,OtiO of bis personal fortune, was at last forced to look for financial help elsewhere. By good
fortune he was able to interest in his project the Burma!) PH Company, which had developed a great
oil business In India, and the late Lord Strathcona, High Commissioner for Canada in London, one of the
founders ef the great Canadian Pacific Railway.
Finally success came to Mr. D’Arcy, after seven years in all had been spent in driliing test
wells in these various areas, when his drillers, then engaged in testing the area of Maidaiw-Naftan
about twenty Miles east of the Karim River on the track between Malamir and Shuiter, struck oil in
paving quantities.
But though huu Ireof tliousati Is of pounds had already bsen spent up to this point in the
search for the precious oil, this was but the beginning of furtlur vast outlay before the oil could be
refmed aud delivered to the markets of the world. It is a point generally forgotten that oil in the earth
is of no value until great sums of money have been spent on wells, storage tanks, pipe-line, tank
steamers, refineries, and ail the elaborate organisation needed for marketing the refined products. Before
therefore the newly-found oil could be sold, all these had to be provided.
Such a programme was too vast for any but a great Company able to call upon its shareholders
for liberal supplies of capital. Accordingly there was brought into being the Anglc-Persian Oil Company,
in whose subsequent success, as was fitting, the people of the two great Kmpires of Persia and Great
Britain were to share. Very soon this new enterprise, like a young Rustam, was challenging the great
companies which up to that time had monopolised the oil trade of the world.
Some idea of what it has cost to bring the Persian oil iudustrv to its present position may be