Agreement between Saudi Arabian Government and A S Onassis to form tanker company with preferential rights to carry Saudi oil; suggestion for similar privilege company to carry Kuwaiti oil

This file contains correspondence relating to:

• Proposal by Greek shipping magnate Aristotle S Onassis to the Kuwaiti Abdulla Ali Riza to form a company and obtain concessions from the Ruler of Kuwait Sheikh Abdulla Al Salem Al Sabah and Ali Riza's subsequent proposal to potentially form a 'Kuwait tanker company' with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company Limited (AIOC) using British tankers (1)
• Idea of leasing or selling a few tanks to AIOC to prevent a 'harmful' scheme being devised (2)
• Ali Riza's suggestion that his company might carry 20% of Kuwait oil (3)
• Discussion of problems arising from the Onassis oil tanker agreement deals with Saudi Arabia and the Kuwait side of the issue including a meeting held at the Foreign Office (4-5)
• Paper setting out the problems in Onassis's proposal for a concession for the carriage of Kuwait oil and the suggestion of allowing Kuwait to form its own tanker company; comments on the paper by the ministries involved; and an extract from a meeting at the Ministry of Transport (6-9)
• Account of a meeting between Political Agent in Kuwait C J Pelly and Ali Riza (10)
• Visit to Kuwait by a representative of Onassis, presumably to negotiate a deal and British attempts to prevent this (11)
• Attitude of AIOC regarding oil tankers for Kuwait (12)
• Formation of a tanker company in Kuwait, including: a letter informing the Kuwait Oil Company Limited (KOC) that two tankers are available; the reaction of the US State Department and the UK Ministry of Transport and the suggestion to point out to the Ruler that this is a highly competitive field; a conversation between L A C Fry of the Foreign Office, Ali Riza and a representative of Taylor Woodrow Construction Limited; and a letter from Ali Riza to the British Tanker Company Limited. It also includes Ali Riza's apparent loss of interest in tankers and the Political Agency in Kuwait's monitoring of the situation (13-14, 16-18)
• Formation of a Kuwait navigation company under a concession granted by the Ruler of Kuwait, and plans for Onassis to use the concession to place a number of his tankers under the Kuwaiti flag (15)