Qatar Petroleum Company

This file relates to the activities of the Qatar Petroleum Company Limited (QPC) in Qatar. It contains correspondence concerning:

• Saudi allegation that drilling has taken place at the Khor Al Odaid [Khawr Al Udayd]
• Provisional statements of the total tonnage of oil produced and the Ruler of Qatar Sheikh Ali Bin Abdulla Al Thani’s profits for 1954 and 1955
• List of the vessels exporting oil from Qatar from December 1954 to October 1955
• Press cutting from the Financial Times on QPC’s increase in output
• Issue of the relations between QPC and the Qatar Government, particularly over amendments to and renewal of the concession agreement. It includes discussion of: QPC’s need for better public relations; issues of gambling; the depreciation of the capital assets used for calculating the division of profits under the 1952 concession agreement; and the claims and counter claims between company representatives and the Ruler’s Representative Abdulla Darwish Fakhroo over the sharing of profits under the agreement
• Issue of introducing incentive discounts to the oil price structure in Qatar, similar to the models in Iran and Iraq
• Appointment of QPC’s General Manager P R A Ensor as its Chief Local Representative in Qatar
• Question of the impact of income tax on the operations of QPC
• The agreement between the Iraq Petroleum Company and the Government of Iraq, and in particular the question of modelling the Qatar agreement on it
• HMG’s concerns about the capability of QPC to negotiate properly
• Meetings to resolve the dispute between QPC and the Ruler and dissipate suspicions among various agents and company representatives
• Invite to the Chief of Education in Qatar Haji Jasim Darwish Fakhroo to visit an oil rig in Doha
• Eventual signing of the agreement between QPC and the Ruler of Qatar
• Issue of the security of QPC’s installations; and the question of the provision by the Ruler of a police detachment for this purpose
• Continued fraught relations between the Ruler of Qatar and the representatives of QPC. It includes discussion of the issue of a gift from QPC of funds for a hospital at Doha and misunderstandings about giving equal pay for equal work to Qataris and foreigners working for QPC