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Coll 6/48 'Oil: Concessions in Saudi Arabia. (Hasa)' [61r] (121/1153)
The record is made up of 1 file (574 folios). It was created in 8 Dec 1923-11 Jul 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. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
EASTERN (Arabia).
r,' z o, j
j j& 1
August 10, 1939.
CONFIDENTIAL.
) ? . * )
Section 2.
1
[E 5628/1699/25]
Copy No.
Mr. Trott to Viscount Halifax.—{Received August 10.)
(No. 123.)
My Lord, • Jedda, July 23, 1939.
I HAVE the honour to transmit to you herewith a copy of the agreement
which was signed at Riyadh on the 31st May last by representatives of the Saudi
Arabian Government and of the California Arabian Standard Oil Company.
The procedure of ratification by both parties will be understood from the terms
of articles 15 and 16 of the agreement: the ratification of the Saudi Arabian
Government was published in the Mecca paper Umm-al-Qura on the 7th July,
1939; the agreement itself was not published in the local press until the 21st July,
which, under article 15, becomes the “effective date” on which the agreement
enters into force. It is evident that the San Francisco office of the company
must have forwarded its ratification, though no formal notice to that effect has
yet appeared.
2. The text of the agreement will no doubt be studied by the competent
departments of His Majesty’s Government, and I propose to confine myself in this
despatch to a few comments on some points, which, on a first reading, appear to me
worthy of notice.
3. The references in this agreement to the previous one signed in 1933 accord
perfectly with the text of the latter instrument, which was printed as an enclosure
to Foreign Office Print (Confidential) No. 15474 of the 22nd September, 1938.(')
There is, however, no mention of any document dated the 27th May, 1933; the new
agreement refers to the original 1933 agreement as “ the Saudi Arab Concession,”
and says that it was signed on the 29th May, 1933, the same day as that on which
Mr. L. N. Hamilton addressed to the Saudi Minister of Finance his letter con
taining four paragraphs and now called the “ Second Principal Agreement.”
4. The areas to which the new agreement, or rather the three agreements
taken together, applies are set forth in the terminal schedule. Not only is the
previous concessionary area in Eastern Arabia included, but a northern area, a
southern area, and the two neutral zones are now allotted to the company for
exploitation. I learn from Sheikh Yusuf Yasin that His Majesty turned over in
his mind for a long time the question of the boundaries of the northern and
southern areas : he is unwilling to have any oil prospecting in the centre of the
country, and he knows that there is considerable doubt as to where its frontiers
really are. The new areas cannot be traced on a map unless the position of such
points as “ the northern end of the westerly edge of the Dahana,” the “ southern
end of the westerly edge of the Dahana,” “ the north-east corner of the boundary
line between Yemen and Saudi Arabia,” and of the northern edge of the Great
Nefud are first determined. I have not yet been able to fix these places with any
accuracy on any map.
5. No mention is made in the new agreement of the “ contact line between
the sedimentary and the igneous formations ” which probably does not coincide
with the eastern edge of the Red Sea Concession. But it is clear from article 12
that whatever preference rights the company possessed under the previous agree
ments over areas not yet assigned to them still persist.
6. The company has the right, under section (c) of article 6, to promote a
company or companies of a nationality acceptable to the Government to exploit
the oil in either of the neutral zones; it also possesses various rights of transport
in and access to those zones.
7. Article 9 gives the company certain rights over the area assigned in 1936
to Petroleum Concessions (Limited) in the Red Sea area.
P) See “ Further Correspondence respecting Eastern Affairs,” Part XLIII, No. 9.
[680 k—2] b
About this item
- Content
This file relates to oil concessions in Saudi Arabia, particularly the Hasa [Al Hasa] concession between the Government of Saudi Arabia and the Standard Oil Company of California (SoCal). It includes discussion of the following:
- Oil negotiations in Saudi Arabia during March and April 1933, and the reported involvement of Major Frank Holmes in negotiations relating to the Kuwait (also spelled Koweit in the file) [Saudi-Kuwaiti] neutral zone.
- Details of an agreement for the oil concession relating to the Hasa region of Saudi Arabia, made between the Government of Saudi Arabia and SoCal (signed on 27 May 1933), and assigned by SoCal to its subsidiary, the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (Casoc).
- British concerns regarding a request made by Casoc via the United States Embassy for its aeroplane to be permitted to fly over Kuwait and Bahrain, as part of a survey of the region relating to its oil concession.
- Reports that Casoc may be interested in exhanging the southern half of its Hasa concession for land further west, and the effect that this might have on Britain's negotiations with Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd].
- Reports of the discovery of oil in Hasa in 1935, and the discovery of commercial quantities of oil there in March 1938.
- Reports that Casoc is considering the possibility of laying a pipeline from Hasa to Bahrain.
- Casoc's oil rights in the Kuwait neutral zone.
- The progress of operations carried out in Hasa by Casoc, including the status of its wells at Dhahran.
- An account of a visit made by the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. at Bahrain (Hugh Weightman) to Casoc's site at Dhahran as well as to other areas in the region, in May 1939.
- Details of a loan from Casoc to the Government of Saudi Arabia.
- Reports of Casoc having taken the decision to construct a refinery at Ras Tanura.
The file features the following principal correspondents: 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. ; the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , Bahrain; the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , Kuwait; the Secretary of State for the Colonies; His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires, Jedda; the His Majesty's Minister at Jedda; officials of the Foreign Office, 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. , the War Office, the Air Ministry, and the Petroleum Department; representatives of Casoc.
In addition to correspondence the file includes the following:
- Copies of the oil agreement and a supplementary agreement between the Government of Saudi Arabia and the Standard Oil Company of California, dated 1933 and 1939 respectively.
- Extracts from Bahrain and Kuwait intelligence reports.
- The minutes of an interdepartmental meeting held at the Colonial Office on 26 April 1933, concerning British interests in oil in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. (notably Kuwait, Bahrain, Hasa in Saudi Arabia, and the Kuwaiti neutral zone).
- Draft and final copies of a War Office report entitled 'Brief Summary of the Oil Situation in the Middle East, November 1934'.
The date range of the volume is 1923-1945 but only a handful of items date from before 1933. These include copies of 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. 's correspondence with the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India respectively, which date from 1923 to 1926 and concern the possibility of oil development both in Qatar and on the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. .
The file includes three dividers which give a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. These are placed at the back of the correspondence (folios 2-4).
- Extent and format
- 1 file (574 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the file.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 575; 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. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/12/2115
- Title
- Coll 6/48 'Oil: Concessions in Saudi Arabia. (Hasa)'
- Pages
- front, front-i, 2r:5v, 15r:19v, 21r:32v, 35r:38v, 40r:43v, 45r:61r, 65r:83v, 85r:97r, 102r:103v, 108r:117v, 119r:124v, 126r:129v, 131r:137v, 140r:146v, 156r:159v, 162r:164v, 167r:188v, 191r:207v, 209r:212v, 214r:225v, 227r:234v, 244r:248v, 252r:259v, 261r:290v, 291ar:291av, 291r:350v, 352r:398v, 400r:414v, 417r:422v, 440r:457v, 463r:551v, 553r:555v, 558r:564v, 566r:575v, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence