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'CONFIDENTIAL 86/31 VOL. B.64 OIL IN ITS RELATION TO THE MIDDLE EAST' [‎246v] (497/578)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (285 folios). It was created in 11 Oct 1940-22 Aug 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. .

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16
(h) The Soviet Government’s Request for (in Oil Concession.
133. It soon became apparent after the arrival of M. Kavtaradze in Tehran
that the real object of his visit was to negotiate for the granting of an oil
concession in northern Persia. When M. Kavtaradze made his official request
for this concession, the Persian Prime Minister informed him that the Govern
ment had already decided to postpone until after the war the question of granting
oil concessions covering any part of Persia. M. Kavtaradze and the Soviet
Embassy thereupon put such pressure on the Persian Government that it was
forced to resign, despite the fact that it had the backing of public opinion. The
new Cabinet followed the same policy as its predecessor in regard to the oil
question, and on the 2nd December, 1944, the Majlis passed a Bill tabled by one
of the Deputies to prevent the Prime Minister or any other member of the
Government from entering into negotiations with any foreign Government or
company or from signing any concession or agreement relating to oil.
134. Foiled in his attempt to secure the concession, M. Kavtaradze left
Tehran for Moscow on the 9th December. It now remains to be seen whether
the Soviet Government will return to tho charge.
135. From a survey of the long and extremely complicated history of north
Persian oil, certain points clearly emerge :— 1
(i) If any non-Russian firm or group applied for an oil concession in the
north, it seems extremely probable that the Soviet Government would
put such pressure on the Persian Government as to render it most
difficult, if not impossible, for its application to be granted.
(ii) Even if Soviet approval or abstention from opposition could be secured,
any firm attempting to exploit the concession would, if it discovered
large quantities of oil, be confronted with the difficulty of finding a
satisfactory way of transporting this oil. The only natural outlet for
north Persian oil is via the Caucasus, and it seems in the highest
degree unlikely that the Soviet Government would agree to such oil
being transported to western markets via Baku and Batum, since it
would thereby be competing with products from those centres. The
only alternative would be a long and very costly pipe-line over the
Elburz and Zagros mountains to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
(iii) The petroleum requirements of northern Persia would not, in them
selves, be sufficient to justify the heavy expenditure on drilling and
on the erection of a refinery that would be required; moreover, it
must be borne in mind that most of the marketing for this region is
already being done by the A.I.O.C. with products from its Naft-i-Shah
field which are refined at Kermanshah. Furthermore, Soviet-Russian
competition m this market might at any time be revived.
(iv) It would thus seem that north Persian oil could be exploited only by the
Soviet Government or by some Persian or other concern in which
they had a large interest.
Uising
session
141
list, it ii
iough r
* this sin
| Baku.
142.
imon. R
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(b) Fit
XXI.— A fghanistan.
136. In 1927 the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (as it was then called) was
unofficially offered a concession covering Afghanistan, but it declined the offer i :
on the grounds that the Tirpul area near Herat, where there were oil indications,
was m the Russian economic sphere and that the inaccessibility of the area made » ■ J
it commercially unattractive. The Burmah Oil Company and the Anglo-Saxon
Petroleum Company likewise considered the possibility of taking up a concession in
Afghanistan but they also gave up the idea, because the remoteness of the area : '' t ' at
rom seaboard would have rendered development work extremely costly, while, if , . ^
oi! were found the cost of a pipe-line to some point on the coast of Makran or f
the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. would be very high. ; 'h00,00(
u i'rvi ^ n ^ eterre ^ b X these objections, two United States companies, the Sea- t I
iij of Delaware and the Texas Corporation, formed a joint concern f^aya.
called the Inland Exploration Company of America with a capital of $5,050,333 ^ele
or tne purpose of negotiating for and exploiting a concession in Afghanistan.
A concession agreement was signed by representatives of the Afghan Govern- 1 JhiK
ment and the company m Berlin on the 19th November, 1936. This agreement i
was mo i ed m Kabul on the 18th January, 1938, in order to embody certain of "forethen
e P rmislon sol the Amiranian Oil Company’s concession in Persia, which were
more favourable to the Government. > J A
!*

About this item

Content

The volume comprises correspondence and discussions regarding the economic and political situation in relation to oil in the Middle East during and immediately after the Second World War. At the centre of the discussions are talks which took place in Washington DC between US and UK government officials looking at the global importance of oil, which focused particularly on oil in the Middle East.

The talks concluded with the production of a memorandum of understanding which was published 8 August 1944 as the Agreement on Petroleum between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, otherwise known as the Anglo-American Oil Agreement (1945).

Also included in the volume is correspondence between 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. (Charles Geoffrey Prior), the Secretary to the Government of India, External Affairs Department (Olaf Kirkpatrick Caroe), 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. , and His Majesty’s Minister at Jeddah (Stanley Jordan) regarding two proposed pipelines. The first being the ‘trans-arabian pipeline’ which it was proposed would link the Middle East to the Mediterranean. The proposal was initially postponed owing to heavy criticism of it in the United States press but was later taken up by the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO). The second proposal from the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) and the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC, later renamed ARAMCO) was for a pipeline to take crude oil from Dhahran [Aẓ-Ẓahrān], Saudi Arabia to the BAPCO refinery at Bahrain.

Also included is correspondence between the Chief Local Representative for BAPCO (Milton H Lipp, Ward P Anderson) and the Adviser to the Government of Bahrain (Charles Dalrymple Belgrave) regarding possible sites for the pipeline and the reservation of required land. Further discussion centred on the question of the eastern frontier of Saudi Arabia, which was in dispute, and whether His Majesty’s Government should look to tackle the matter at that time with the Saudi Arab Government or wait until the progress of the oil companies required its resolution. Jabal Naksh and Khor-al-Odaid [Khawr al ‘Udayd], which were claimed by Qatar and Abu Dhabi respectively, and whose claims were supported by His Majesty’s Government but contested by Saudi Arabia were discussed as being key areas in the frontier dispute.

Another matter discussed in the volume was a visit paid by the Mission of the Petroleum Reserves Corporation to the Middle East. The Mission’s purpose was to review resources of petroleum in the Middle East and its itinerary included visits to Kuwait, Dhahran, and Bahrain. The mission was headed by Everette Lee Degoyler and also included the eminent geologists and petroleum experts Dr George Martin Lees, William Embry Wrather, and John Herhold Murrell.

Other matters touched on in the volume include a request by ARAMCO to undertake a hydrographic survey of the coast line of the Kuwait Neutral Zone; the possibility of resuming oil field production in Qatar and Kuwait provided the necessary equipment could be obtained from the USA; articles published in American journals and newspapers regarding the global oil situation and oil in the Middle East; and a visit paid by Major Frank Holmes to Kuwait in 1944.

Also included in the volume are a number of notes and memorandums relating to oil in the Middle East:

A series of file notes which were maintained as a record of the correspondence in the volume can be found at folios 272-283.

Extent and format
1 volume (285 folios)
Arrangement

The volume contains a table of contents on folio 5 comprising of subject headings and page references. The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the front to the rear of the file.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 287; 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. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 7-270; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled, and are located in the same position as the main sequence. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.

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English in Latin script
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'CONFIDENTIAL 86/31 VOL. B.64 OIL IN ITS RELATION TO THE MIDDLE EAST' [‎246v] (497/578), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/R/15/1/700, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100086676321.0x000062> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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