Coll 6/48 'Oil: Concessions in Saudi Arabia. (Hasa)' [‎99r] (197/1153)

5
accounts thereof, and of the natural gas it may produce and save and sell, and
duly authorised representatives of the Government shall also have access at all
reasonable times to such accounts. The Company shall within three months, after
-w^he end of each semester, commencing with the date of commercial discovery of
oil, deliver to the Government an abstract of such accounts for the semester, and
a statement of the amount of royalties due the Government for the semester.
1 hese accounts and statements should be treated as confidential by the Govern
ment, with the exception of such items therein as the Government may require
to publish for fiscal purposes.
I he royalties due the Government at the end of each semester commencing
with the date of commercial discovery of oil, shall be paid within three months
after the end of the semester, such portion of the amount as may be unquestioned
shall be tendered the Government within the period hereinabove, and thereupon
the question shall be settled by agreement between the parties or failing that by
arbitration as provided in this contract. Any further sum which may be payable
to the Government as a result of this settlement shall be paid within sixty days
after the date of such settlement.
Article 17.
It is agreed that all gold payments provided in this contract, whether pounds
gold or shillings gold, are to be based on the gold pound standard according to
its weight and fineness at the time the payment may be due. It is also agreed
that wherever it is stipulated in this contract the equivalent of any sum or
amount in pounds gold or in shillings gold may be paid, such equivalent may be
in dollars in l nited States currency, or pounds sterling.
It is agreed, furthermore, that the equivalent of pounds gold or shillings
gold, for any payment which may be made hereunder in dollars, United States
currency or in pounds sterling (with the exception of the first payment provided
for in article 18 hereof), shall be based on the average of the rate of exchange as
computed over a period of three months immediately preceding the due date of
the payment.
Article 18.
All payments provided in this contract to be made to the Government may
be made by tendering such payment directly to the Government, or by depositing
the amount due to the credit of the Government in some bank which the Govern
ment designates in writing, and which the Government may change from time
to time by giving written notice to the Company long enough in advance, so that
Company will have sufficient time to make future payments to the new bank. It
is agreed that Government will designate such bank in Saudi Arabia, or in the
United States of America, or in England, or in Holland, but’ that no bank in
Saudi Arabia will be so designated unless such bank has a correspondent in
United States of America, England or Holland, through which bank transfers
of money to Saudi Arabia may be made. Once the Company has made the proper
payment to the Government or has deposited the proper sum to such correspondent
for transfer to a bank in Saudi Arabia, the Company shall be free of all further
responsibility in connexion with payment.
It is agreed, however, that the first payment of £35,000 gold, or its equivalent
(comprising the first payment and the first annual rental), shall be made, within
fifteen days after the effective date of this agreement, to a correspondent in New
York or in London, of Netherlands Trading Society (Nederlandsche Handel-
Maatschappij) at Jed da, Saudi Arabia, to be transmitted without delay, and at
the expense of the Company, to said society and to be delivered to the Government
upon obtaining a proper receipt from the Government for such payment. If this
first payment is not made in gold, it will be made in pounds sterling at the
current rate of exchange at the time the Company makes the payment to such
correspondent.
Article 19.
As soon as practicable after the date of discovery of oil in commercial
quantities, the Company shall select some point within Saudi Arabia for the
erection of a plant for manufacturing sufficient gasoline and kerosene to meet the
ordinary requirements of the Government, providing, of course, that the character
r 17968] B 3