IOR/R/15/1/662

The volume contains letters, telegrams and memoranda relating to oil production in Bahrain, being undertaken by the Bahrain Petroleum Company (hereafter BAPCO). The volume is a direct continuation of ‘File 86/2 XIII (C 61) Bahrain Oil’ (IOR/R/15/1/661). 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, and BAPCO’s representatives in London (Hamilton Ballantyne) and Bahrain (Ed Skinner).

The subjects covered by the volume are:

• Continued discussion amongst Government officials over a decision to charge BAPCO lighting dues on their vessels at Bahrain, and the Secretary of State’s opinion that it would be unwise to impose dues at present, recommending instead that BAPCO pay an annual lump sum to Government (folios 61-62);
• Allegations that BAPCO have been using wireless telephone to communicate with their head offices in California, prohibited under the terms of the concession agreement (folios 28-30). Attempts to substantiate the claims are inconclusive (folio 59);
• Appointment of a new British (Canadian) subject to the BAPCO board (folios 53, 60);
• BAPCO’s plans for the construction of an oil refinery at Bahrain, including various applications to Government, identifying land on which the refinery is to be built, with maps (folios 43, 47-50, 173-77, 181-87);
• Reports in the world press about Standard Oil’s negotiations with other oil companies to assist in the marketing of Bahrain oil, including a report in the Iraq Times in October 1935 about negotiations between Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and BAPCO (folio 21), and reports in the Times (folio 81), the New York Tribune (folios 93-97) and Daily Gazette of Karachi (folios 114-16) on an agreement, eventually struck around June 1936, between Standard Oil and the Texas Corporation;
• Correspondence between the British Government and Ballantyne with regard to the implications of the new agreement which has created the California Texas Oil Company Limited, with a broad consensus that the Company will have a “general obligation to respect HMG’s [His Majesty’s Government’s] interests” (folios 206-09);
• Correspondence between Government and BAPCO, stating the need for a “neutral referee” to check (or gauge) oil, in light of new oil refining techniques being employed (folios 121-28);
• The prospect of an application for the unallotted areas of Bahrain (i.e. those not covered by the existing BAPCO concession), anticipated to be made by Petroleum Concessions Limited (folios 100-05);
• BAPCO abstracts of accounts and statements of royalties for the second half of 1935 (folios 64-65) and the first half of 1936 (folios 156-57), and annual reports for 1935 (folios 67-77) and 1936 (folios 194-205), both of which include details of the status of the Company’s oil and water wells, buildings constructed, and nationality of workforce. A map accompanies each report, indicating well locations and other facilities including pipelines, pump stations and camps. Both maps are enclosed in a single envelope (folio 76 for the 1935 report, folio 77 for the 1936 report);
• The copy of a deed updating the mining lease, dated 3 June 1936 (folios 146-51), its changes chiefly relating to the construction of the oil refinery and increased production.