Coll 30/216 'Development of oil supplies in the Middle East.' [‎27r] (53/131)

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138. The exploration area covered the whole of Afghanistan, but the
company was bound by the terms of its concession to select within 3 years five
provinces for exploitation, the rest of the area being abandoned.
139. The company’s geologists carried out surveys in the north and found
a promising area near Khanabad, 40 miles south of the river Oxus, and another
near Sar-i-Pul, 65 miles south-west of Balkh and about the same distance north
east of Maimana. Both these areas were not far from producing fields in the
4®Bhirabad region in Soviet Central Asia, on the further (north) side of the Oxus.
The Afghan Government refused to allow the company to put down test wells
in this northern territory. The company also examined the Tirpul area, which
was found to be disappointing, and it started to survey some districts further to
the south, but the Afghan officials prevented it from carrying out a thorough
examination.
140. Owing to this obstructiveness and to the remoteness of the more
promising regions examined, the Inland Exploration Company abandoned its
concession in June 1938.
xxii.—u.s.s.r
141. In order to complete this survey of the oil resources of the Middle
East, it is necessary to describe briefly the very rich Soviet oilfields in the
Caucasus and the less important fields on the eastern side of the Caspian sea,
although most of these fields are not, strictly speaking, within the area covered
by this survey.
(i) Baku.
142. The Baku oilfields are by far the richest in the whole of the Soviet
Union. Before the war they produced 24,000,000 tons of crude oil a year, and
production in 1944 is estimated at some 26,000,000 tons or 70 pei cent, of the
total output (37,000,000 tons) of the Union. Baku oil is dealt with as follows : —
(a) Crude O/Z—The bulk of the crude oil produced is refined in Baku;
of the remainder, some is piped to Batum for treatment there, while
the rest is taken by sea to Makhach-Kala whence it is sent partly
by pipe-line and partly by rail to Grozny for refining.
(b) Finished Products .—Part of the kerosene refined at Baku is conveyed
to Batum by pipe-line. The rest of the kerosene and the other finished
products are disposed of in the following manner : (i) Rail to Batum,
(ii) Rail to Grozny, Rostov and beyond, (iii) Tanker to Makhach-Kala
and thence by pipe-line and rail to Grozny and beyond, (iv) Tanker
to Astrakhan and thence by river tanker and barge up the Volga.
The Baku crude oil refined at Grozny is similarly dealt with, some
bein (T piped or sent by rail to Rostov and beyond and some being
piped to Makhach-Kala, whence it is shipped to Astrakhan for onward
transport by Volga tanker (there is a short pipe-line from the Volga
roadstead, near the mouth of the river, to a point just to the north
of Astrakhan).
(ii) Grozny.
143 The Grozny fields seemed at the outset to ofter great possibilities, and
refineries of very large capacity were therefore erected to treat the oil produced.
Production, however, fell very far short of the estimates, and the surplus refining
ranacitv at Grozny has since been used to deal with Baku oil.
144 Before the war Grozny production amounted to 2.700,000 tons a year
or 8-5 per cent, of the total for the Soviet Union; production m 1944 is estimated
^145. In pre-war days there was a pipe-line from Grozny to Rostov and
Trudovaya. It is not known whether this pipe-line is again in operation along
its entire length (667 miles).
(iii) Maikop. . . .,
146. The Maikop fields produced some 2.500,000 tons of good quality oil
before the war. This oil was refined partly at Krasnodar and partly at Tuapse.
TPp \T‘iikoD fields suffered very severely as a result of military operations in
Siat frea intnsequence, production in 1944 is estimated at only 100,000 tons.