IOR/R/15/1/655

The volume contains letters, telegrams and memoranda relating to oil prospecting being undertaken in Bahrain by the Bahrain Petroleum Company (hereafter BAPCO). The volume is a direct continuation of ‘File 86/2 VI (C 46) Bahrain Oil’ (IOR/R/15/1/654). The principal correspondents in the volume are the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Fowle, the Political Agent in Bahrain, Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Gordon Loch, the Chief Local Representative in Bahrain for BAPCO, Ed Skinner, and British Government officials from the India Office and Petroleum/Mining Department in London.

Key subjects discussed in the volume include:

• Negotiations over the proposed extension of the prospecting license until 2 January 1935, and the anticipated mining lease, with particular attention given to the financial payments and royalties payable to the ruling family of Bahrain;
• Acceptance by the ruler, Shaikh Ḥamad bin ‘Īsá Āl Khalīfah, on 19 November 1933, of the terms of the extension (folio 97), with a copy in English and Arabic of the agreement (folios 105-07);
• BAPCO plans for the development of an oil storage and export infrastructure at Bahrain, including: oil storage facilities, questions over the need for a refinery at Bahrain, a deep water anchorage with submarine line at Sitrah Island (including arrangements for aerial and marine surveys, and a blueprint map showing the submarine line and anchorage, folio 217), and the installation of wireless radio facilities;
• A proposal by BAPCO, dated 3 December 1933, to export 5,000 barrels of oil daily from 1 July 1934 (folios 165, 185);
• The employment of a local labour force (referred to as ‘coolies’, folios 193-94);
• A report dated 10 December 1933 of oil struck at well number 4 “in considerable quantity” (folio 228).