IOR/R/15/1/658

The volume contains letters, telegrams and memoranda relating to oil prospecting undertaken in Bahrain by the Bahrain Petroleum Company (hereafter BAPCO), and the development of BAPCO’s infrastructure. The volume is a direct continuation of ‘File 86/2 IX (C 50) Bahrain Oil’ (IOR/R/15/1/657). 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 for BAPCO, Ed Skinner, and BAPCO’s London representative, Hamilton Ballantyne.

• The ongoing construction of oil export facilities off Sitrah Island, including a submarine line, buoying, wireless radio link, and oil storage tanks;
• Application by BAPCO for the use of long-distance wireless radio within Bahrain’s coastal waters, rejected by the British and Bahrain Governments, recommending instead the use of Imperial & Communication Limited’s own, similar facilities (folios 21-22, 26);
• The calibration of oil storage tanks, and measurement of oil for royalties, including the appointment of an external inspector by the Government of Bahrain (folios 101-03, 110-11), and a set of US pound to UK ton conversion tables (folios 170-72);
• Reports of five barrels of crude oil having been shipped to Yokohama Japan (folio 8), and intelligence about where and why the barrels had been sent (folios 105-06, 134);
• Negotiations between British Government officials and BAPCO over amendments to the proposed mining lease, including a copy of the amended lease (folios 49-63), and a memorandum from the British Governmental Mining Department on the draft mining lease (folios 157-65);
• Reports on BAPCO’s workforce, and the nationality of the Company’s employees, with a report that the Company has increased its proportion of British and Bahraini subjects (folios 113-14), and a copy of the quarterly Roster of Employees report, dated 15 April 1934 (folios 116-32), including details of all employees names, nationalities, roles, and length of residency in Bahrain;
• Application by BAPCO for the appointment of a mooring master and pilot at the Company’s facilities off Sitrah Island (folio 75), initially rejected by the Government of Bahrain, but later accepted after acknowledgement of the specialist skills required of a mooring master for tankers (folios 179-80);
• The departure on 7 June 1934 of the Standard Oil Company tanker El Segundo, form Bahrain to Singapore, carrying 3,300 tons of oil (folio 144).

The volume also contains pages of an article entitled “Bahrain Oil Field”, dated 17 May 1934 taken from the British journal Oil News (folios 198-99).