Coll 6/76 'Saudi Arabia: Oil concessions over the Red Sea littoral.' [‎11r] (21/157)

(E 6028/1283/25)
Major Longrigg, of Petroleum Concesaions Limited (the
!•P.0.) called on me yesterday morning for a general talk about
his recent negotiations v-ith the Saudi Government* Beyond giving
me a good deal of the local background - e*g* the friendly
reception he had received at Taif, the agreeableness of the
climate of Taif, the general manner in which the negotiations
were conducted, some sidelights on the personalities concerned,
and rather a gruesome account of M. Biraud*s last illness - Major
Longrigg did not tell me -uch that we did not already know.
2. He produced the attached sketch map of the concession,
but agreed that it did not go much further than the text, dince
s
in the north and south the concession is bounded by the northern
and southern frontiers of Sauai Arabia, while inland it is
bounded generally by a line running 100 miles from the coast;
but the precise method of interpreting that definition or drawing
the line has been left over for subsequent discussion if and
when oil is found in the neighbourhood of the boundary. The
sketch ma throws no light on t is point.
Major Longrigg siad that the Company intended to do its
best to develop the concession, since the payments to the audi
Government were steeply graded, and it would not pay the Company
merely to put the concession into cold storage. He agreed that
oil experts were often unreliable and mistaken, but he thought
that there was a distinct probability of oil being found,
particularly in the southern area. The Jaudis had apparently
been anxious that the Company should take on the 1 adi sirhen as
well, but the Company had come to the conclusion that the
prospects of oil were too remote in that area to justify them in
extending the conce sion to include it.
^ • ...
$ up to I.udawara