Coll 28/85 ‘Persia. Relations with H.M.G. Anglo-Persian Oil Company.’ [‎115v] (232/380)

12
Drilling at ^larmatain
SSiy for their perseverance and foresight.
* * * *
Juft a year later, in 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil Com
pany was formed with a capital of ^2,000,000, which was
increased by further issues of debentures and preference shares
in 1910 and 1912 to ^,2,9005000. Lord Strathcona was the firft
iAK v: Chairman.
The productivity of Maidan-i-Naftun was amply proved
. —>- by the prolific well ftruck in 1908. Thereafter, developments
were extended to the adjacent field of Maidan-i-Naftek, where
again an enormously abundant yield was obtained at a depth of
i l ,875 feet. With the assurance of the oil supply thus made
complete, the great work of preparation for its transportation and treat
ment went on as rapidly as the difficult nature of the country and the
various obftacles which meet commercial development in a remote and
primitive land would permit.
Launches and barges and, later, ftern-wheel, shallow-draught Steamers
were placed on the lower and upper reaches of the Karun River. A short
railway was laid to overcome the obstacle of the rapids at Ahwaz and an up
river terminus conftructed at Der-i-Khazineh. For the remaining thirty
miles to the oil-field a road was blafted and built up the valley of the Tembi
River, where before there had been only a mule-track, along which the
Stream had to be crossed and recrossed thirty times. To-day a completely
equipped railway conneds Der-i-Khazineh with the Fields.
The coaStal plain of southern Persia runs back for a hundred miles or
more from the sea, and here the task of laying the pipe-line was simple
enough except in the rainy season. But from this comparatively narrow
shelf of land the hills rise abruptly, leading up and up to the central
Persian plateau. To reach the Fields, two ranges had to be crossed with
the pipe-line, which at one point attains an elevation of 1,300 feet.
A mule-track, wide enough for two mules to walk abreaft, was blafted