IOR/L/PS/12/2115

This file relates to oil concessions in Saudi Arabia, particularly the Hasa [Al Hasa] concession between the Government of Saudi Arabia and the Standard Oil Company of California (SoCal). It includes discussion of the following:

• Oil negotiations in Saudi Arabia during March and April 1933, and the reported involvement of Major Frank Holmes in negotiations relating to the Kuwait (also spelled Koweit in the file) [Saudi-Kuwaiti] neutral zone.
• Details of an agreement for the oil concession relating to the Hasa region of Saudi Arabia, made between the Government of Saudi Arabia and SoCal (signed on 27 May 1933), and assigned by SoCal to its subsidiary, the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (Casoc).
• British concerns regarding a request made by Casoc via the United States Embassy for its aeroplane to be permitted to fly over Kuwait and Bahrain, as part of a survey of the region relating to its oil concession.
• Reports that Casoc may be interested in exhanging the southern half of its Hasa concession for land further west, and the effect that this might have on Britain's negotiations with Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd].
• Reports of the discovery of oil in Hasa in 1935, and the discovery of commercial quantities of oil there in March 1938.
• Reports that Casoc is considering the possibility of laying a pipeline from Hasa to Bahrain.
• Casoc's oil rights in the Kuwait neutral zone.
• The progress of operations carried out in Hasa by Casoc, including the status of its wells at Dhahran.
• An account of a visit made by the Political Agent at Bahrain (Hugh Weightman) to Casoc's site at Dhahran as well as to other areas in the region, in May 1939.
• Details of a loan from Casoc to the Government of Saudi Arabia.
• Reports of Casoc having taken the decision to construct a refinery at Ras Tanura.

The file features the following principal correspondents: the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf; the Political Agent, Bahrain; the Political Agent, Kuwait; the Secretary of State for the Colonies; His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires, Jedda; the His Majesty's Minister at Jedda; officials of the Foreign Office, the India Office, the War Office, the Air Ministry, and the Petroleum Department; representatives of Casoc.

In addition to correspondence the file includes the following:

• Copies of the oil agreement and a supplementary agreement between the Government of Saudi Arabia and the Standard Oil Company of California, dated 1933 and 1939 respectively.
• Extracts from Bahrain and Kuwait intelligence reports.
• The minutes of an interdepartmental meeting held at the Colonial Office on 26 April 1933, concerning British interests in oil in the Persian Gulf (notably Kuwait, Bahrain, Hasa in Saudi Arabia, and the Kuwaiti neutral zone).
• Draft and final copies of a War Office report entitled 'Brief Summary of the Oil Situation in the Middle East, November 1934'.

The date range of the volume is 1923-1945 but only a handful of items date from before 1933. These include copies of the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf's correspondence with the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India respectively, which date from 1923 to 1926 and concern the possibility of oil development both in Qatar and on the Trucial Coast.

The file includes three dividers which give a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. These are placed at the back of the correspondence (folios 2-4).