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Coll 6/48 'Oil: Concessions in Saudi Arabia. (Hasa)' [194r] (387/1153)
The record is made up of 1 file (574 folios). It was created in 8 Dec 1923-11 Jul 1945. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
■— r c't c\ .•
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EASTERN (Arabia).
’ i O O f *
March 21, 1936r-
CONFIDENTIAL.
Section 3.
[E 1537/1283/25]
Sir A. Ryan to Mr. Eden.—(Received March 21.)
(No. 61. Confidential.)
Sir, Jedda, February 28, 1936.
WITH reference to Mr. Calvert’s despatch N o. 276 of the 8th October last,
I have the honour to state that I had an interesting conversation on the
27th February with Mr. W. J. Lenahan, the local representative of the California
Arabian Standard Oil Company, about the position in regard to the company’s
concession in Hasa. Mr. Lenahan had offered spontaneously to come and tell me
all he could. Although he made no secret of what he had to say, I would ask you
to regard this record as confidential and not for the information of rival
industrial interests.
2 Mr. Lenahan referred to the recent creation of a new company,
technically British, under the name of the “ California Standard Oil Company
(Limited).” Its head office is in San Francisco, and the directors are all United
States citizens, except one Frenchman and a London solicitor, Mr. H. R. J
Ballantyne, of whom the other interested parties think very highly. The moving r
spirit in London is Mr. L. N. Hamilton, with whom I am on very friendly terms.
3. Mr. Lenahan explained that the new company would deal with the
marketing of Bahrein oil, and would also act as a “ service unit ” for the Bahrein
Oil Company, i.e., attend to their supplies and the recruitment of their rapidly
increasing imported personnel. It would in due course perform the same
functions for the California Arabian Standard Oil Company.
4. Mr. Lenahan spoke of the relations of his company with the Saudi
Government. They had found Sheikh Muhammad Tawil, the Director of Finance,
&c., in Hasa, most obstructive. They now have nothing more to do with him,
except as regards certain customs matters, and they are greatly pleased with the
special official, Seyyid Hashim, who was sent to Hasa to look after their business
last July (see paragraph 223 of Jedda report for July). This gentleman is now
in the Hejaz, but his employment in Hasa is of a permanent nature and he will
soon be going back there.
5 Mr. Lenahan gave me an account of the position at Jebel Dhahran, the
only place in which wells have been sunk. I was not able to take in all the
technical details, but I reproduce what I understood.
6. The Jebel Dhahran is not a single eminence, but an “ anticline ”
measuring very roughly 10 miles by 4. This is similar in essentials to the
structure at Bahrein, and the nature of the operations in the Jebel has been
based on this analogy. Well No. 1 was sunk at the apex of the anticline. Oil at
the rate of 100 barrels a day was struck at a depth of 1,979 feet. Lower down.
I understand, difficulty was encountered owing to the great volume of gas. In
this connexion Mr. Lenahan mentioned, I think, a figure of 80 million cubic feet
of gas at a depth of 2,400 feet, but I am not clear as to the significance of this
figure. Practicable oil may be struck at greater depths. Drilling was recently
resumed, and some days ago the depth was 2.365 feet, “ deep-drilling through a
cement plug.” Preparations were being made “ to run a 6f-inch casing.”
7. In view of their experience with Well No. 1, the company decided to
start Well No. 2 in the same anticline, hoping that the oil, the existence of which
has been proved by the partial success of No. 1, might there be more workable.
This new well is 1,800 metres to the south and 900 metres to the west of No. 1.
It had reached a depth of 430 feet some days ago, but, when Mr. Lenahan spoke
to me on the 27th, he had heard unofficially that the latest depth was over
500 feet.
8. Mr. Lenahan spoke with definite, though guarded, optimism of the
prospects in the Jebel Dhahran. He told me that the company’s geologists were
[656 x—3]
About this item
- Content
This file relates to oil concessions in Saudi Arabia, particularly the Hasa [Al Hasa] concession between the Government of Saudi Arabia and the Standard Oil Company of California (SoCal). It includes discussion of the following:
- Oil negotiations in Saudi Arabia during March and April 1933, and the reported involvement of Major Frank Holmes in negotiations relating to the Kuwait (also spelled Koweit in the file) [Saudi-Kuwaiti] neutral zone.
- Details of an agreement for the oil concession relating to the Hasa region of Saudi Arabia, made between the Government of Saudi Arabia and SoCal (signed on 27 May 1933), and assigned by SoCal to its subsidiary, the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (Casoc).
- British concerns regarding a request made by Casoc via the United States Embassy for its aeroplane to be permitted to fly over Kuwait and Bahrain, as part of a survey of the region relating to its oil concession.
- Reports that Casoc may be interested in exhanging the southern half of its Hasa concession for land further west, and the effect that this might have on Britain's negotiations with Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd].
- Reports of the discovery of oil in Hasa in 1935, and the discovery of commercial quantities of oil there in March 1938.
- Reports that Casoc is considering the possibility of laying a pipeline from Hasa to Bahrain.
- Casoc's oil rights in the Kuwait neutral zone.
- The progress of operations carried out in Hasa by Casoc, including the status of its wells at Dhahran.
- An account of a visit made by the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. at Bahrain (Hugh Weightman) to Casoc's site at Dhahran as well as to other areas in the region, in May 1939.
- Details of a loan from Casoc to the Government of Saudi Arabia.
- Reports of Casoc having taken the decision to construct a refinery at Ras Tanura.
The file features the following principal correspondents: the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , Bahrain; the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , Kuwait; the Secretary of State for the Colonies; His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires, Jedda; the His Majesty's Minister at Jedda; officials of the Foreign Office, the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , the War Office, the Air Ministry, and the Petroleum Department; representatives of Casoc.
In addition to correspondence the file includes the following:
- Copies of the oil agreement and a supplementary agreement between the Government of Saudi Arabia and the Standard Oil Company of California, dated 1933 and 1939 respectively.
- Extracts from Bahrain and Kuwait intelligence reports.
- The minutes of an interdepartmental meeting held at the Colonial Office on 26 April 1933, concerning British interests in oil in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. (notably Kuwait, Bahrain, Hasa in Saudi Arabia, and the Kuwaiti neutral zone).
- Draft and final copies of a War Office report entitled 'Brief Summary of the Oil Situation in the Middle East, November 1934'.
The date range of the volume is 1923-1945 but only a handful of items date from before 1933. These include copies of the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. 's correspondence with the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India respectively, which date from 1923 to 1926 and concern the possibility of oil development both in Qatar and on the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. .
The file includes three dividers which give a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. These are placed at the back of the correspondence (folios 2-4).
- Extent and format
- 1 file (574 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the file.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 575; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/12/2115
- Title
- Coll 6/48 'Oil: Concessions in Saudi Arabia. (Hasa)'
- Pages
- front, front-i, 2r:5v, 15r:19v, 21r:32v, 35r:38v, 40r:43v, 45r:61r, 65r:83v, 85r:97r, 102r:103v, 108r:117v, 119r:124v, 126r:129v, 131r:137v, 140r:146v, 156r:159v, 162r:164v, 167r:188v, 191r:207v, 209r:212v, 214r:225v, 227r:234v, 244r:248v, 252r:259v, 261r:290v, 291ar:291av, 291r:350v, 352r:398v, 400r:414v, 417r:422v, 440r:457v, 463r:551v, 553r:555v, 558r:564v, 566r:575v, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence