مجموعة ٦/ ٤٨ "النفط: امتيازات في المملكة العربية السعودية. (الأحساء)" [و‎‎٤‎٦‎٧] (١١٥٣/٩٣٥)

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B
THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
EASTERN (Arabia).
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August 11, 1933.
CONFIDENTIAL.
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Section 1.
[E 4540/487/25]
No. 1.
Memorandum respecting Petroleum in Arabia (as revised by Petroleum
Department.—(Received in Foreign Office, August 11, 1933.)
(A)— Petroleum Prospects of Arabia.
(1) LITTORAL Region of the Petroliferous deposits and seepage
have long been known to exist in this area. Interest in it was stimulated by
Mr. Twitchell’s survey in 1931 in the coastal region north of Jedda, but this
area seems to have dropped into the background of late. In a report furnished
by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company to the Petroleum Department in 1932, it
was pointed out that the general structure of the Red Sea is known geologically
as a “ Rift Valley,” that is, a sunken valley bounded on either side by rift faults.
The prospects of finding oil in commercial quantity are considered to be remote,
though not entirely non-existent, and even after a complete survey, ‘ Rift Valley
conditions ’ ’ are such that any test drilling would be very speculative.
(2) Hasa and Koweit Neutral Zone. —It has been thought for many years
that this region might produce oil. The idea that it may be underlain by rocks
of the same geological age as those of the Iraq and Persian oil-fields, and that
potential oil structures might exist extending from Koweit to Qatar inclusive,
has been encouraged by the striking of oil in quantity in Bahrein in 1932.
(3) The Farsan Islands and A sir. —Interest in these islands and/or the
mainland of Asir, from the point of view of petroleum potentialities, seems to
date from before the Great War. Operations were actually started on one of
the islands by the Red Sea Petroleum Company, a subsidiary of the Shell Group,
in 1926 or early in 1927, but drilling operations were subsequently abandoned as
unsuccessful. As to Asir, see (D) (2).
(4) Mokalla. —In 1928-29 the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company (Shell
Group) carried out investigations, and reached the conclusion that the petroleum
prospects were quite unfavourable.
(5) Muscat. —The Anglo-Persian Oil Company abandoned this area as
unfavourable in 1925-26.
(B) Interested or Potentially Interested Companies.
(1) The Iraq Petroleum Company. —The Turkish Petroleum Company (now
the Iraq Petroleum Company) was formed in 1912, when the Deutsche Bank
became associated with the National Bank of Turkey and the Anglo-Saxon
Petroleum Company (Royal Dutch Shell Group), in order to press certain claims
to oil rights in Bagdad and Mosul, including those attached to the Bagdad
Railway Concession. The chief rival of the new company at that time was the
Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which had for some time been in negotiation with
the Turkish Government. In 1914 an agreement was entered into providing
for the reconstitution of the Turkish Petroleum Company, from which the
National Bank of Turkey withdrew, the new participants being the Anglo-
Persian Oil Company, Slfper cent.; the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company and
the Deutsche Bank, 25 per cent. each. This agreement also provided that the
three groups should give undertakings not to be interested directly or indirectly
in the production of oil in the Ottoman Empire in Europe and Asia (excluding
Egypt, Koweit and the Transferred Territories), except through the Turkish
Petroleum Company. This agreement was signed by the British and German
Governments, and by the groups concerned. As the Turkish Petroleum Company
was then predominantly British, this arrangement had the effect of securing the
whole of this area to interests which were predominantly British. After the
war American and French interests were admitted into the Iraq Petroleum