IOR/R/15/1/652

The volume contains letters, telegrams and memoranda relating to ongoing exploratory oil drilling being undertaken in Bahrain by the Bahrain Petroleum Company (hereafter BAPCO). The volume is a direct continuation of ‘File 86/2 III (C 42) Bahrain Oil, Eastern and General Syndicate Limited’ (IOR/R/15/1/651). The principal correspondents in the volume are Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Fowle, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Gordon Loch, Political Agent in Bahrain, and Major Frank Holmes, Chief Local Representative of the Bahrain Petroleum Company.

Key subjects discussed in the volume include:

• Discussion amongst British officials in Bahrain and London over whether BAPCO are fulfilling conditions C and D of their contractual obligations in the concession agreement, respectively: the long periods of absence from Bahrain of the Chief Local Representative of the Company (Holmes), and the proportion of British to non-British workers employed by BAPCO;
• A dispute over exemption of duty on equipment imported by BAPCO;
• Whether oil royalties should be paid in Indian rupees or Sterling;
• A request by BAPCO for an extension of the prospecting license, including Holmes’s offer of terms and a draft indenture (folios 68-72), and the Ruler of Bahrain, Shaikh Ḥamad bin ‘Īsá Āl Khalīfah’s rejection of Holmes’s offer (folios 86-91);
• A map of the prospective location of the British naval base at Bahrain (folio 117a);
• Enquiries by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company after a concession for those parts of Bahrain not covered by the existing BAPCO concession.

The volume also contains a set of notes which provide a concise overview of the Bahrain concession to date, including details of the commercial viability of Bahrain’s oil, under the heading ‘exploitable quantity’ (folios 58-64).