Oil affairs in Saudi Arabia

This file relates to oil affairs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, during the period January to June 1971. It contains correspondence concerning:

• A royal decree by King Faisal Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud imposing a five percent surtax on the net income of all companies engaged in the production, purchase or sale of hydrocarbons; and two newspaper clippings from The Times dated 9 and 20 January 1971
• The repair of the damaged Syrian portion of the Trans-Arabian Pipeline (Tapline) and the resumption of oil flow to Lebanon
• The planned expansion of the Arabian American Oil Company's (ARAMCO) oil operations and the Saudi border with Abu Dhabi
• A statement by Sheikh Ahmad Zaki Yamani on the rise in the price of Saudi crude oil, following a meeting between the Gulf oil-exporting countries and oil companies in Tehran
• An article by Richard Johns on Libya and oil prices in the Financial Times, dated 12 March 1971
• The plans of Sun Oil Company to begin drilling for oil offshore in the Red Sea in March 1971 and the operations of Italy's Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (Eni)-Azienda Generale Italiana Petroli Mineraria (Agip) in the Rub' Al Khali desert, southeastern Saudi Arabia
• The Saudi reaction to the Tehran Agreement expressed by the Saudi Deputy Minister of Petroleum and former Secretary General of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Mohammad Joukhdar in an interview with Risalat Al Bitrul Al 'Arabi, dated 22 February 1971
• The contract between Hovertravel Limited and Arabian Geophysical and Surveying Company (ARGAS) and their use of seismographic methods to discover oil off the coast of Saudi Arabia; and agreement on the limits of the survey with the Israeli patrols near Sharm El Sheikh
• The plans of ARAMCO to increase the output and export capacity of Berri offshore oilfield
• The delivery to Petroship, tanker subsidiary of Petromin, of its first tanker Tayyibah
• A Daily Telegraph article by R H C Steed titled 'King of the Middle East Vacuum'
• The delivery to ARAMCO of a tanker, the F A Davies, to be used as a floating storage vessel
• The approval of the contract between Sheikh Yamani and United Arab Contractors of Egypt for the construction of a new, nine-building College of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran