Coll 30/216 'Development of oil supplies in the Middle East.' [‎24v] (48/131)

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100. The main provisions of the permit provide for geological surveys, the
submission of geological reports to the Government, the right to drill shallow
wells for geological data and the right to a prospecting licence.
101. In 1937-38 the company carried out an aerial survey of the Hadhra-
maut and also made a ground survey. The results were not very promising, but
the company is desirous of making a further examination, particularly of the
Shabwa salt domes, when conditions permit this to be done.
102. On the outbreak of war the company informed the Governor of Aden^r
that it was unable to continue surveys, as such work was not likely to further the
war effort, and it therefore applied for a renewal of the licence (which was valid
only for two years). The Governor accepted this plea, and has since granted
further renewals of the licence.
XIX.— The Yemen.
103. So far as is known, no oil concessions covering any part of the Yemen
have ever been granted by the Imam Yahya. He is extremely averse to any
foreign penetration into his country, and is therefore unlikely to grant any
concession; he is, however, an old and sick man, and his successor may prove less
obdurate. Prospects of finding oil are regarded as extremely poor (it will be
recalled that a geological survey of Asir yielded disappointing results).
104. If any company succeeded in securing a concession in the Yemen, it
would find it difficult to carry out prospecting or exploitation work in the eastern
and north-eastern parts because of the absence of a demarcated frontier between
the Yemen and Sa’udi Arabia.
XX.— Persia.
105. At the present time Persia is producing far more oil than all the other
Middle Eastern countries combined, and her reserves of petroleum are known to
be extremely large; they may, however, be rivalled in time by the reserves in the
oil-bearing regions of Kuwait, Sa’udi Arabia and Qatar bordering the western
side of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . So far, only the western and south-western regions of
Persia have been extensively prospected and developed, and all the present
production is from them. It is possible that the northern areas may also be found
to contain important oilfields.
(i) Western and South-Western Persia.
106. The Persian Government granted the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company its
present concession, which is valid until 1993, on the 29th April, 1933; this
concession was subsequently approved by the Majlis and the Shah; it replaced
the D’Arcy concession which the Persian Government had cancelled in 1932.
107. The A.I.O.C. was bound by the terms of the new concession to select by
the end of 1938 one or more areas aggregating not more than 100,000 square miles
situated to the south of a line drawn from the Perso-Iraqi frontier near
Sulaimaniya to the Perso-Baluch frontier near Irafshan. The company selected
its exploitation areas within the prescribed period. The main area, which is
some 870 miles long and has an average width of 100 miles, extends from the Iraq
frontier north of Qasr-i-Shirin to the entrance to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; it includes
all the company’s existing oilfields, namely, the older fields of Masjid-i-Sulaiman
and Haft Kel, the important new field at Gach Saran, the new producing areas
at Agha Jari and Pazanun, and the small oilfield of Naft-i-Shah (the last-
mentioned forms the eastern part of the structure which the Khanaqin Oil
Company, another A.I.O.C. subsidiary, is exploiting at Naft Khaneh in Iraq).
108. Production in 1938 amounted to 10,359,000 tons. Owing to war
conditions, this level was not attained in subsequent years, but there is no reason,
so far as the fields are concerned, why it should not be very greatly exceeded; in
fact, plans are under consideration for substantially increasing production in the
future.
109. The oil is conveyed by pipe-line from the main producing fields to the
refinery at Abadan, which is one of the largest and most up to date in the world;
the present capacity is over 11,000,000 tons a year. There is a large plant at
Abadan for the production of aviation spirit. Most of the oil processed at