IOR/L/PS/12/3838

The file concerns geological and geophysical surveys for oil and other minerals in the hinterland of Muscat and Oman (especially Dhofar Province, also referred to as Dhufar) and the Trucial Coast (especially Sharjah) undertaken by the substantially British-owned Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) and its subsidiaries Petroleum Concessions Limited, Petroleum Development (Trucial Coast) Limited, and Petroleum Development (Oman and Dhofar) Limited. The British Government were keen to assist IPC to resume exploration, which had been discontinued during the Second World War, in view of the political, strategic and economic importance of the Company's oil concessions in the area (folio 275).

The papers include: the extent to which certain tribal areas were under the control of local rulers; the need for demarcation of the boundaries of the Trucial Coast states; list of concession and political agreements in force in 1945 in the various Trucial Coast states (folios 267-268); interest on the part of the Shaikh of Fujairah in entering into treaty relations with the British Government (folio 210); minutes of meetings at the India Office between British Government officials and oil company representatives; permission from the British Government to employ American personnel in survey work (folios 186-193); papers concerning a report by Sir Cyril Sankey Fox, formerly Director of the Geological Survey of India, for the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman entitled 'The Geology and Mineral and Other Resources of Dhufar Province and Other Parts of the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, South-East Arabia', March-May 1947 (folios 64-100), including correspondence from the author of the report; sketch map provided by the Political Agent, Muscat (Major Andrew Charles Stewart), which is said by him to have been marked by the Sultan of Muscat [Sa‘īd ibn Taymūr] to show the western boundary of Dhofar (folio 68); a request by Petroleum Development (Trucial Coast) Limited that geological factors be taken into account in determining the boundary between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, with sketch map (folios 57-58); Petroleum Concessions Limited 'Instructions to Field Party for Geological Reconnaissance of Southeastern Hadhramaut, the Mahra, and Dhofar' (folios 49-53); and minutes of Foreign Office meeting to discuss the south-eastern frontiers of Saudi Arabia, July 1947.

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.