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File 2249/1915 Pt 4 ‘Oil: Mesopotamia & Persia. (General File) 1920–24’ [138r] (275/484)
The record is made up of 1 item (242 folios). It was created in 1 Nov 1919-20 May 1924. 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.
10^’
an indefinite depth of cretaceous strata,it would not be
expected to reach the source of the|)il.
In a paper of this kind, destructive criticisir
is not enough; it is necessary in addition to indicate other
methods by which this deeply seated oil may be won. when
dealing with a definite oil horizon occurring in an anticline
formed by a well known sequence of rocks the striking of this
oil horizon at a certain depth becomes a process of almost
mathematical certainty and the methods have been built on the
experience of many years. Here the problem is new and the
following proposed solution is only tentative.
k
Consider a hypothetical case where (as
Haft Khaneh) good seepages S are got on
a Pars anticline (see diagram). Keeping
to round numbers suppose there are 2000
feet of Pars 2000 feet of Pocene and
then cretaceous,whioh we will suppose
to be the source of the oil.Suppose the
seepage 3 to be fed by a fissure or
place of weakness P. On the old proce
dure and on the assumption that the oil
is in Pars the well would be placed at
W and this well would get nothing in Pars unless the fissure
had flooded the anticline or happened to be so inclined as to
meet the drill. The method suggested for tackling a case like
this is as follows
(1) Prom surface evidence gain all available informa
tion as to direction and inclination of Fissure*
(2) Augment this information by numerous small prospect
bore^ in the vicinity of the seepages. These would be produc
ing oil while at the same time they wuld be gathering the
4
necessary information about the fissure or plane of fracture
up which the oil is coming.
(3) Prom the information thus gained deeper wells
could be sunk by increasing distances from the seepages and
designed to strike the fissure at greater depths.These
might be expected to find the oil at greater pressure and
their action would be to provide an^ easy path for the oil
to reach the surface .
The
writer
The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping.
hopes that the points raised in the above
paper will be given serious consideration for they are of
derabl
un
31
About this item
- Content
The item comprises correspondence and other papers concerning oil exploration in territories that were part of the Ottoman Empire prior to the First World War. The item includes: reports on exploratory drilling being undertaken by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) at Naft Khana [Nafţ Khānah], in territory transferred from Persia [Iran] to Mesopotamia [Iraq] in 1914 in response to recommendations made by the Turco-Persian Boundary Commission; the question of whether APOC drilling activity at Naft Khana should be paid for out of military funds, given Britain’s military occupation and administration of Mesopotamia during and after the First World War; oil concessions in Mesopotamia in relation to the San Remo Oil Agreement (1920), signed between the British and French Governments; a 1920 survey report by the APOC geologist, William Robert Smellie, entitled ‘Oil in relation to Fars anticlines’ (ff 132-139), and a response by the Officiating Director of the Geological Survey of India, Edwin Hall Pascoe, that disagrees with Smellie’s findings (ff 100-101); British Government policy on mining and oil prospecting in Palestine; and correspondence exchanged between representatives of the Government of the United States and the Foreign Office, relating to the refusal to permit American companies to conduct oil surveys in Mesopotamia.
The item’s principal correspondence are: the Foreign Office; HM Petroleum Executive, the Civil Commissioner in Baghdad, Arnold Talbot Wilson; and representatives of the Government of the United States.
The item includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.
- Extent and format
- 1 item (242 folios)
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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File 2249/1915 Pt 4 ‘Oil: Mesopotamia & Persia. (General File) 1920–24’ [138r] (275/484), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/557/2, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100076914802.0x000057> [accessed 3 August 2026]
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/10/557/2
- Title
- File 2249/1915 Pt 4 ‘Oil: Mesopotamia & Persia. (General File) 1920–24’
- Pages
- 132r:139v
- Author
- Smellie, William Robert
- Copyright
- ©BP is believed to be the rightsholder
- Usage terms
- Creative Commons Non-Commercial Licence