IOR/R/15/2/662

The file contains copies of correspondence, memoranda and other papers, many marked ‘Most Secret’, relating to plans for the defence and emergency demolition of oil fields and refineries operated by the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) in Bahrain, and to a lesser extent, those operated by the California-Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC) in Saudi Arabia. The principal correspondents in the file are the Political Agent in Bahrain (Edward Birkbeck Wakefield); the Chief Local Representative for BAPCO (Ward P Anderson); members of the Corps of Royal Engineers and the British Tenth Army. The file is a direct chronological continuation of ‘File 28/1 K I Defence of oil field and refinery’ (IOR/R/15/2/661).

The file includes:

Papers relating to Passive Air Defence (PAD) measures at Bahrain:

• a copy of proposals, prepared by Major S Hills of the Royal Engineers and dated 28 April 1942, for PAD measures at the BAPCO refinery, principally brick sheathing of the refinery oil tanks, with details of construction, labour and costs (ff 50-64);
• a blueprint diagram of the protective sheathing for oil tanks (f 86);
• proposed changes to the construction of the brick sheathing, and the impact on costs (ff 91-95);
• progress report of construction work (f 232).

Plans for an oil denial scheme, with three stages: 1) the plugging with cement of those oil wells surplus to production requirements; 2) the permanent immobilisation these oil wells; and 3) the permanent immobilisation of all oil wells and the destruction of the oil refinery and other equipment (f 65). Papers relating to the scheme include:

• throughout the file, correspondence referring to high-level strategic meetings held in Baghdad and Cairo, relating to Allied oil facilities in and around the Persian Gulf, and the perceived threat they face from enemy action;
• throughout the file, Most Secret correspondence from the Tenth Army, coordinating the oil denial schemes in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia (for example, f 119);
• visits, assessments and reports written by members of the Corps of Royal Engineers, who are in Bahrain to facilitate the denial scheme (ff 83, ff 115-117), and progress reports from BAPCO on the first phase of the oil denial scheme (plugging wells, f 181);
• plans for the enrolment of oil company employees as ‘guides’ into the Army, to assist in the demolition of oil facilities (f 145), including instructions for the commissioning and enlisting of officials and employees of oil companies into the British Army (ff 163-164). The initial plans for twenty employees to be enrolled were later revised upwards to include as many employees as available (see note on f 281);
• plans for the evacuation of BAPCO and CASOC employees, with roll calls of employees for each company (ff 165-175, ff 182-202 respectively);
• correspondence relating to attempts to ‘smuggle’ Royal Engineers officers onto the Saudi mainland to carry out denial scheme assessments at the CASOC refinery, and CASOC’s reluctance to offer assistance, prior to assurances that their concessionary position will be safeguarded by the United States Government (ff 247-268).