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File 1450/1919 ‘Mesopotamia & Kurdistan: Geological Reports on’ [236r] (502/522)
The record is made up of 1 volume (244 folios). It was created in 1 Dec 1917-26 Jun 1922. 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.
to flow and has consequently covered so large an area. W in most places it is pure
to a depth of three inches, below which it is mixed with sand and soil.
This depth of three inches represents approximately 60,000 tons of mire
pitch or bitumen on the surface. puic
From Abu Jir in a direction N. 26 W. are two other seepages of bituminous
oil, the first Jeohah at a distance of seven miles, and the second Ain al Awosil at
a distance of 15 miles from Abu Jir They were not visited bv the author
but the L.P.O. oi Kamadi, Lieut. Bourke, who has visited them states thaf of
Jebhah to be oval m shape, and half a mile long, and that of Ain al Awasil
similar but much smaller.
Near Hit there are five localities in which there is pitch. Its typical mode
of occurence is a pool of warm or cold sulphurous and brackish water covered
with a viscuous asphaltic oil. In some cases there is considerable evolution of
petroleum gas, and this forms large bubbles in the pitch, which burbt the nas
escaping with a loud hissing noise. ’ &
Although only small areas at the actual seepages yield pure pitch it is
widely disseminated in the district in the form of impregnation of the Euphrates
limestone and of the overlying Koweit Series. 1
( b .) Khanaqin District.
The prolific seepages of Naft Khana, 22 miles S., 11 E. of Khanaqin, or 20
miles N., 15 W. of Mandali, are perhaps the most important visited. They occur
aimost without a break for a distance of a mile and a quarter m a straight line
and mark exactly the course and extent of a fault. Where the fault dies out*
the seepages promptly cease.
Crude oil may be divided broaaly into two classes, asphalt base oils, and
paraffin base oils. The Dit and Kamadi seepages belong to the former class, and
those of Is aft xvliana to the latter, which are the more valuable. They are here
accompanied by petroleum gas, and as seems to be invariably the case in Persia,
by sulphurous water.
This particular oil is being exploited by local' natives, who collect it from
the pools daily, and take it in skins to Mandali, where they refine it. They esti
mate the maximum output of crude at 10 skins per diem, or, say, 50 gallons.
(6.) PROSPECTS OE OBTAINING PETROLEUM.
( a .) Hit—Ramadi District.
The oil of this region unquestionably comes from the Euphrates limestone,
therefore some knowdedge of the structure is necessary in order to judge of the
prospects. Although the oil-bearing strata are locally horizontal, they pitch
Sown to the West and South, and to the East as well, since in these directions the
strata of the Koweit Series, wfiich lie above them, alone are visible. There is,
therefore, three parts of a dome wffiose sides dip at a few feet to the mile only.
Big productions have been obtained from similar structure in the United States.
The gas pressure and large extent of the seepages, though not necessarily imply
ing a good production of asphaltic oil from drilled wells, must be taken as
exceedingly favourable evidence.
The choosing of a well site would be more or less arbitary, and the first one
should be near the seepage, about a quarter of a mile W. of Hit, since here there
is considerable evolution of gas, and water is within easy reach.
There are various deposits of pitch already at the surface, and these can be,
and are being, worked as they stand. Added to this is the possibility of obtain
ing heavy grade oil by drilling.
(5.) Naft Khana.
To Naft Khana the author attaches the greatest importance, for here are
found all the essentials of a high quality productive oilfield, namely :—
An anticline 10 miles long, or as it pitches down at either end, it might be
termed an elongated dome.
Underlying petroliferous strata which in one part of Persia are giving
enormous productions of oil, and which at Chah Surkh, near Qasr-i-Shirin, also
gave oil.
Copious seepages of light gravity paraffin base cil.
Petroleum gas pressure.
About this item
- Content
This volume contains correspondence, memoranda, reports, telegrams and maps and geological drawings, regarding the geological examination of regions in Mesopotamia and the prospect of petroleum [oil] in these areas.
Included in the volume are the following reports:
- ‘MESOPOTAMIA GEOLOGICAL REPORTS No. 7-11’ (‘No. 7’ is crossed out and replaced with ‘No. 8’), 1920 (ff 9-22)
- ‘GEOLOGICAL REPORT (Mesopotamia) No. 7 NOTES ON THE UNDERGROUND WATER RESOURCES OF NORTHEN MESOPOTAMIA’, 1920 (ff 25-31)
- ‘GEOLOGICAL REPORT (Mesopotamia) No. 6 NOTES ON ZAKHO AND DOHUK [Duhok]’, 1920 (ff 41-44)
- ‘MESOPOTAMIA GEOLOGICAL REPORT 1919’, 1920 (ff 57-109)
- ‘REPORT OF THE BITUMINOUS DEPOSIT NEAR KIFRI’, 1919 (f 114)
- ‘GEOLOGICAL REPORT (Mesopotamia) No 5. THE KIFRI DISTRICT’ (ff 115-116)
- ‘GEOLOGICAL REPORT (Mesopotamia) No 4. RECONNAISSANCE REPORT ON THE COUNTRY ON THE RIGHT BANK OF THE RIVER TIGRIS BETWEEN BAIJI AND MOSUL’, 1919 (ff 122-129)
- ‘GEOLOGICAL REPORT (Mesopotamia) No 3. RECONNAISSANCE REPORT ON THE EUPHRATES VALLEY BETWEEN HILLAH AND HIT’, 1919 (ff 131-143)
- ‘GEOLOGICAL REPORT (Mesopotamia) No 2. PRELIMINARY NOTES ON THE JABAL HAMRIN’, 1919 (f 143)
- ‘GEOLOGICAL REPORT (Mesopotamia) No 1 ON THE DISTRICT OF QAIYARAH [Al Qayyarah]’, 1919 (ff 146-151)
- ‘APPENDIX. Translation of a Captured Document. Report of a Tour to the Coal Area and Petroleum Springs in the Zone of the Sixth L. of C. Inspectorate’, 1919 (ff 156-158)
- ‘No 13. Notes on the Jabal Gilabat [Qilabat] between Chinchal-al-Kabir and Qarah Tappah’, 1919 (f 164)
- ‘No 14. Notes on the Jabal Hamrin between Qarah Tappah and Table Mountain’, 1919 (ff 164v-167)
- ‘No. 10. Notes on the Geology of the Country between Tazah Khurmatu and Tauq [Tukhama Khulu]’, 1919 (ff 182-185)
- ‘REPORTS ON THE PROSPECTS OF PETROLEUM IN THE BAGHDAD WILAYAT [Vilayet]’, 1918 (ff 187-201)
- ‘Report No 9. Oil in the Kirkuk Anticline’, 1919 (ff 204-205)
- ‘No 3. Report on the Prospects of Obtaining Oil in the Jab-al-Khanuqah, S.E. of Sharqat [Ash Sharqat]’, 1918 (f 207)
- ‘No 4. Prospects of Obtaining Oil in the Jab-al-Qaiyarah and its continuation, the Jab-al-Najmah’, 1919 (ff 208-209)
- ‘No 5. Possibilities of Obtaining Oil in the Jab-al-Mishrak [Al Mishraq] and Country West of Hammam Ali [Hammam al Ali]’, 1919 (ff 210-211)
- ‘No 6. The Country between Mosul and Quwair [Al Kuwayr] on the Greater Zab, and its Prospects as Oil-producing Territory’, 1919 (ff 211v-212)
- ‘Report No 7. Sulphur near the Confluence of the Greater Zab with the Tigris’, 1919 (f 213)
- ‘No 8. Prospects of Obtaining Oil in the Quwair Dome’, 1919 (ff 213-214)
- ‘Appendix to Report No. 4, on the Jab-al-Qaiyarah Oil-field’, 1919 (f 214v)
- ‘Report on the prospects of obtaining Oil in the Jabal-Hamrin and Jabal- Makhul between Tikrit and Sharqat’, 1918 (ff 217-218)
- ‘Odd Notes on the Country between Tikrit and the Jabal-Hamrin and Jabal Makhul’, 1918 (ff 219-220)
- ‘PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE PROSPECTS OF PETROLEUM IN THE BAGHDAD WILAYAT’, 1918 (ff 233-236).
Also included in the volume are the following maps and geological drawings:
- ‘TO ACCOMPANY GEOLOGICAL REPORT MESOPOTAMIA No 8’, 1920 (f 20)
- ‘To ACCOMPANY GEOLOGICAL REPORT MESOPOTAMIA No 8 ON THE SULAIMANIYAH DISTRICT’, 1920 (f 21)
- ‘TO ACCOMPANY GEOLOGICAL REPORT MESOPOTAMIA No: 7a. THE WATER RESOURCES OF THE MANDALI-BADRAH DISTRICT’, 1920 (f 30)
- ‘GEOLOGICAL REPORT (MESOPOTAMIA) No 7 NOTES ON THE UNDERGROUND WATER RESOURCES OF NORTHERN MESOPOTAMIA’, 1920 (f 31)
- ‘TO ACCOMPANY GEOLOGICAL REPORT No 6’, 1920 (f 44)
- ‘TRANSVERSE SECTION. JABAL HAMRIN’ (f 88)
- ‘Diagrammatic Section across Jabal Hamrine [Hamrin] in the Table mountain area, shewing [showing] relationship of Pos Tertray [Post-Tertiary] Gravel to the Tertainis [Tertiaries]’ (f 168)
- ‘Red Clay & Sandstone Series Transverse section across Jabal Gilbat’ (f 169)
- ‘QĀRAH TAPPAH’, 1918 (f 170)
- ‘CHINCHĀL-TALISHĀN’, 1918 (f 172)
- ‘SHAHRABĀN’, 1917 (f 174)
- ‘MANSURĪYAH AL JABAL’, 1918 (f 176)
- ‘1 Diagrammatic Section N[orth]. of the Tuz Khurmatu’ (f 183)
- ‘2 Diagrammatic Section oposite [ sic ] Sulaiman Beg, just N[orth]. of the stream’ (f 183)
- ‘3 Diagrammatic Section oposite [ sic ] Sulaiman Beg just S[outh]. of the Stream’ (f 183v)
- ‘Transverse Section across Jabal Nasaz near Gil’ (f 185)
- ‘GEOLOGICAL MAP OF NAFT KHANA DISTRICT OF MESOPOTAMIA’ (f 198)
- ‘THE PETROLEUM DEPOSITS OF HIT’ (f 199)
- ‘GEOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCE IN N.E. MESOPOTAMIA’ (f 200)
- ‘SECTION FROM SHAHRABAN TO CHAH SURKH [Chiya Surkh]’ (f 201)
- Transverse Section Maps of Jabal Hamrin and Jabal Makhul (f 220).
The volume comprises internal correspondence between British officials of different departments. The principal correspondents are: the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad; the Under-Secretary of State, 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 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. , Baghdad; officers of the Imperial Mineral Resources Bureau; and officers from the Petroleum Department.
The volume includes a divider which gives the subject number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (244 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume’s contents are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1 and terminates at the inside back cover with 246; 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.
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- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/10/815
- Title
- File 1450/1919 ‘Mesopotamia & Kurdistan: Geological Reports on’
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:19v, 22r:29v, 32r:43v, 45r:87v, 89r:167v, 177r:182v, 184r:184v, 186r:197v, 202r:219v, 221r:245v, back-i
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- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
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- Open Government Licence