"ملف ١١/٢ يوميّات وتقارير: سلسلة الجزيرة العربية" [و‎‎٢‎٥] (٢٢٢/٤٩)

m
the Deutsche Bank, 25 per cent. each. This agreement also provided that the
three groups should give undertakings not to be interested directly or indirectly
in the production of oil in the Ottoman Empire in Europe and Asia (excluding
^gypt, Koweit and the Transferred Territories), except through the Turkish
Petroleum Company. This agreement was signed by the British and German
Governments, ami by the groups concerned. As the Turkish Petroleum Company
was then predominantly British, this arrangement had the effect of securing the
whole of this area to interests which were predominantly British. After the
war American and French interests were admitted into the Iraq Petroleum
Company and the arrangement as regards non-competition between the groups
composing the Iraq Petroleum Company was confirmed in an agreement between
the groups, entered into in 1928. This was a private agreement between the
groups with which the British Government was not associated. Under this
agreement a line was drawn round Arabia, Palestine and Asia Minor, which
excluded the Sultanate of Koweit and the Farsan Islands, but included Bahrein,
and an area was thus defined within which the various groups constituting the
Iraq Petroleum Company agreed that they would not seek for or obtain oil
concessions otherwise than through the Iraq Petroleum Company or its nominee.
On the admission of French and American interests the share capital of the
Iraq Petroleum Company was distributed as follows :—
Percentage.
Anglo-Persian Oil Company .. .. .. 23.75
Royal Dutch Shell .. .. .. .. 23.75
French Group .. .. . .. 23.75
American Group( 1 ) .. .. .. .. 23.75
C. S. Gulbenkian .. .., .. .. 5.00
100.00 - ,
As the Royal Dutch Shell is 60 per cent. Dutch and 40 per cent. British,
the British shareholding in the company now only represents about 33f per cent.
The Iraq Petroleum Company is still technically a British company, as in
article 32 of its convention with the Government of Iraq the company must be
and remain a British company, registered in Great Britain, and the chairman
must at all times be a British subject. But the position is different from a
British point of view’, from that which formerly obtained when the company was
British in fact as w’ell as in name.
Apart from the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and the Burmah Oil Companv,
there are no really large oil companies which are entirely British, and which
could compete with the big groups represented on the Iraq Petroleum Companv.
^ U he Burmah Oil Company has never been inclined to undertake exploration work
outside India. There may, however, be some instances where the Iraq Petroleum
Company is not prepared to seek concessions in the reserved area, and where the
Anglo-Persian Oil Company, either by itself or in association with one or more
of the other groups, may be allowed to acquire concessions.
(2) British Oil Development Company and Mosul Oil-fields (Limited). On
the 20th April 1932, the Iraq Government granted an oil concession to the
British Oil Development Company (Limited) over the western portion of Iraq.
?n l nnA 0nCeSS1011 is f ° r a P erio d of seventy-five years and covers an area of about
40,000 square miles,. comprising all Iraq lands situated west of the River Tigris
and noi th of the thirty-third parallel of latitude. A special law confirming the
British Oil Development Concession w^as passed and published in the
Official Gazette on the 29th May 1932. This is reckoned as the date of the
commencement of the concession. The company must be and remain a British
company registered in Great Britain, and the chairman must be a British subject.
Ihere is, however, a large foreign interest in the company. The British Oil
(*) In 1932 the American shareholding in the American group (Near East Development Cor
poration) was held in the following proportions :—
Standard Oil Company of New Jersey ..
Standard Oil Company of New York (now the Socony-Vacuum Company)
Gulf Oil Corporation of Pennsylvania ..
Lc571FI>
Percentage.
.. 41 f
.. 415
.. 16§