IOR/R/15/2/718

The file contains copies of correspondence and other papers relating to the acquisition of oil industry equipment and supplies from the California-Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC) and the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO), for use by British military headquarters at Basra, Iraq (later referred to as PAIFORCE: Persia and Iraq Force), the Defence Department of the Government of India, or by other oil interests, including the Office of the Petroleum Division at the British Embassy in Baghdad (represented by H S Bowlby), and the Assam Oil Company in India. Principal correspondents in the file include: the Political Agent at Bahrain (Edward Birkbeck Wakefield); representatives of CASOC (chiefly Floyd William Ohliger and Charles E Davis); the Chief Local Representative of BAPCO (chiefly Milton H Lipp and Ward P Anderson).

The file includes:

• correspondence dated May 1942 relating to the arrival in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia of Major W H C Travers of the Royal Engineers, who is charged with inspecting, and has the authorisation to purchase, any oil industry equipment required for military operations at Basra (ff 2-7);
• subsequent correspondence relating to requests for specific equipment, such as motor vehicles, tractors, cranes, wagons, motor spares, piping, welding machines, etc.;
• correspondence relating to the purchase or rent of such equipment, including: copies of statements of order; purchase orders; invoices from either CASOC and BAPCO; requests for money transfer, requisition; conditions of sale;
• correspondence relating to the movement of purchased or hired equipment, including: arrangements for collection, including correspondence relating to the permission required from the Saudi Arabian Government to export equipment belonging to CASOC, in use in Saudi Arabia; arrangements for shipping; confirmation of receipt;
• correspondence dated January 1942 relating to an enquiry made by Major S Hill of the Royal Engineers, of the practicalities of constructing fifty pontoons at the BAPCO facilities in Bahrain (ff 72-74);
• an assessment, written by Major S Hills, dated June 1942, of the practicalities of extracting 10,000 tonnes of coral at Bahrain for export to Basra (f 81-83).