IOR/L/PS/12/3835

The file concerns negotiations over the granting of oil concessions to companies with a significant British interest by a number of states on the Trucial Coast: Dubai, Sharjah, Ras-al-Khaimah, Abu Dhabi, and Ajman. The negotiations were initially with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company Limited (APOC) (later known as the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC)) and the D'Arcy Exploration Company Limited, but D'Arcy's rights were subsequently taken over by Petroleum Concessions Limited (PCL) (a subsidiary company of the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), but in which the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company were a partner).

The papers cover: oil explorations in the region; the role of Frank Holmes in the negotiations; claims on the area by the Iraq Petroleum Company; the desire of the British Government to encourage exploitation of Trucial Coast oil by a group with a majority British element, as the Iraq Petroleum Company was strongly non-British controlled; official British satisfaction that a company with substantial British interests (PCL) had been able to counter the threat of American penetration in the area (folios 257-258); draft concession agreements; correspondence between PCL and local rulers about the transfer of D'Arcy's rights to PCL (folios 85-86); correspondence between the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf and local rulers making them responsible for the safety of surveying parties in their territories (folios 69-78); correspondence between the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf and local rulers informing them that approval had been granted to PCL by the British Government to enter into negotiations over concessions in their territories (folios 36-47); and the insistence of the Shaikh of Dubai [Sa‘īd bin Maktūm Āl Maktūm] that Haji Williamson [William Richard Williamson] should accompany any survey party sent into his territory (folios 10 and 14).

The file includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.