IOR/R/15/1/641

The file discusses the granting of oil concessions in Kuwait and within the Kuwait-Nejd [Najd] neutral zone (herein referred to as the neutral zone), and contains correspondence and reports from the Political Agent, Kuwait; the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf; the India Office; the Foreign Office; the Petroleum Department; the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (A.P.O.C.); the Standard Oil Company; the Eastern and General Syndicate Limited; the Kuwait Company and the Arabian Development Syndicate.

The reports in the file provide background information on the various oil companies interested in the concessions, and their various attempts to secure these concessions as well as any involvement they have previously had with concessions in Bahrain and Kuwait. Also included in the reports are opinions on the granting of concessions in Nejd by Bin Saud (also given as Ibn Saud) [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] who held an equal right to any potential concession being granted in the Kuwait-Nejd neutral zone.

From folio 34 onwards the correspondence centres primarily on the formation of the Kuwait Oil Company, which is formed by A.P.O.C. and the Gulf Oil Company in an attempt to secure their oil interests in Kuwait and includes draft copies of both their proposed commercial agreement for a concession with the Shaikh of Kuwait (Shaikh Aḥmad al-Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ) (folios 109-119, 265-275, 303-314), and of their proposed political agreement with His Majesty's Government. Minutes of meetings held at the India Office December 1933-February 1934 to discuss the proposed agreements and potential amendments to the clauses within them are also included. Some of the correspondence from A.P.O.C. is written on the company paper, the letterhead for which gives the company's contact information in both English and Persian.

Also included in the file are discussions on the formation of another new group, the Arabian Development Syndicate, which includes Abdulgani Ydlibi (also given as Abdul Ghani Adlibi), a Syrian from Manchester who secures authorisation from Ibn Saud to deal with oil and mineral rights within Nejd territory and who are interested in securing the concession for the neutral zone. There are also reports on this company from the British Consul in Jedda.

The file also contains expressions of the British Government's attitude towards, and opinions of, Major Frank Holmes, who had formally been the Chief Local Representative for the Bahrain Petroleum Company and was being proposed as a negotiator for the new Kuwait Oil Company, but who was not considered 'persona grata' by the British Government. Folio 346, within the office notes. contains notes written by the Political Resident relating to Major Holmes, dated 18-23 November 1923, and expressing his opinion that Holmes would at some point return to the Gulf.