IOR/L/PS/12/3856

The file concerns negotiations with Petroleum Concessions Limited (PCL) over an oil concession agreement in the Koweit [Kuwait] Neutral Zone. The Shaikh of Kuwait [Aḥmad al-Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ] exercised joint control over the Neutral Zone with the King of Saudi Arabia [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd], generally referred to in the papers as Ibn Saud, and neither ruler could grant a concession without the co-operation of the other. The Sheikh of Kuwait could not grant a concession without the approval of the British Government.

The papers include: draft concession for the Neutral Zone prepared by Petroleum Concessions Limited (folios 419-433); India Office correspondence, memoranda, and minutes of meetings with oil company representatives; correspondence concerning the negotiations from the Foreign Office, the British Legation, Jedda, the Political Agent, Kuwait, the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and the Petroleum Department (later the Ministry of Fuel and Power); Ibn Saud's decision, as far as his own rights in the area were concerned, to grant an option to the Standard Oil Company of California (later the Arabian American Oil Company), (the rights were secured by agreement in 1939); the question of whether the Kuwait Neutral Zone was within the 'Red Line Agreement' of 1928 (e.g. folio 357); correspondence from Petroleum Concessions Limited; the Company's decision to pursue an option rather than a concession (folio 348); draft option agreement (folios 332-335); the role in the negotiations of Major Frank Holmes (including correspondence from Holmes); the Shaikh of Kuwait's view that the whole of the Neutral Zone should really belong to Kuwait (e.g. folio 320); minutes of meetings at the Foreign Office with representatives of the Company, and the Company's financial offer to Ibn Saud (folios 253-269); and the agreement between the Arabian American Oil Company and the Eastern Gulf Oil Company to compete with PCL for the Shaikh of Kuwait's rights in the Neutral Zone, 1943-44.

The file also contains one apparently misfiled letter dated 31 January 1947 (folio 4).

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.