http://thefilmarchive.org/
Saudi Arabian oil was first discovered in commercial quantities at Qatif in 1938.
In 1922, King 'Abd-al'-Aziz met a New Zealand mining engineer named Major Frank Holmes. During World War I, Holmes had been to Gallipoli and then Ethiopia, where he first heard rumours of the oil seeps of the Persian Gulf Region. He was convinced that much oil would be found throughout the region. After the war, Holmes helped to set up Eastern and General Syndicate Ltd in order, among other things, to seek oil concessions in the region.
In 1923, the king signed a concession with Holmes allowing him to to search for oil in eastern Saudi Arabia. Eastern and General Syndicate brought in a Swiss geologist to evaluate the land but he claimed that searching for oil in Arabia would be "a pure gamble." This discouraged the major banks and oil companies from investing in Arabian oil ventures.
In 1925, Holmes signed a concession with the sheikh of Bahrain, allowing him to search for oil there. He then proceeded to the United States to find an oil company that might be interested in taking on the concession. He found help from Gulf Oil. In 1927, Gulf Oil took control of the concessions that Holmes made years ago. But Gulf Oil was a partner in the Iraq Petroleum Company, which was jointly owned by Royal Dutch/Shell, Anglo-Persian, the Compagnie Française des Pétroles, and "the Near East Development Company, representing the interests of the American companies. The partners had signed up to the "Red Line Agreement" which meant that Gulf Oil was precluded from taking up the Bahrain concession without the consent of the other partners; and they declined. Despite a promising survey in Bahrain, Gulf Oil was forced to transfer its interest to another company, Standard Oil of California (SOCAL), which was not a bound by the Red Line Agreement.
Meanwhile King 'Abd-al'-Aziz had dispatched American mining engineer Karl Twitchell to examine eastern Arabia. Twitchell found encouraging signs of oil, asphalt seeps in the vicinity of Qatif, but advised the king to await the outcome of the Bahrain No.1 well before inviting bids for a concession for al-Hasa. To the American engineers working in Bahrain, standing on the Jebel Dukhan and gazing across a twenty-mile (32 km) stretch of the Persian Gulf at the Arabian Peninsula in the clear light of early morning, the outline of the low Dhahran hills in the distance were an obvious oil prospect.
On 31 May 1932, the SOCAL subsidiary, the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) struck oil on Bahrain. The discovery brought fresh impetus to the search for oil on the Arabian peninsula.
Negotiations for an oil concession for al-Hasa province opened at Jeddah in March, 1933. Twitchell attended with lawyer Lloyd Hamilton on behalf of SOCAL. The Iraq Petroleum Company represented by Stephen Longrigg competed in the bidding but SOCAL was granted the concession on 23 May 1933. Under the agreement, SOCAL was given "exploration rights to some 930,000 square kilometers of land for 60 years." Soon after the agreement, geologists arrived in al-Hasa and the search for oil was underway.
SOCAL set up a subsidiary company, the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC) to develop the oil concession. SOCAL also joined forces with the Texas Oil Company when together they formed CALTEX in 1936 to take advantage of the latter's formidable marketing network in Africa and Asia.
When CASOC geologists surveyed the concession area, they identified a promising site and named it Dammam No. 1, after a nearby village. Over the next three years, the drillers were unsuccessful in making a commercial strike, but chief geologist Max Steineke persevered. He urged the team to drill deeper, even when Dammam No. 7 was plagued by cave-ins, stuck drill bits and other problems, before the drillers finally struck oil on March 3, 1938. This discovery would turn out to be first of many, eventually revealing the largest source of crude oil in the world. For the king, oil revenues became a crucial source of wealth since he no longer had to rely on receipts from pilgrimages to Mecca. This discovery would alter Middle Eastern political relations forever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabian_Oil
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42:58
The Saudi Royal Family 2002by GroupAdvertising18,566 views
good insight
Reddylion 2 weeks ago
has anyone seen the bug on Zaid's nick 24:51
halalmash 1 month ago
at 17:08 the captain says.. " Stop, Brake, Stop, Brake "
tommyn79 1 month ago
الله يرحمك يا زايد
عمار يا الامارات عمار والفضل والحمد لله تعالى
ALz3eEm07 1 month ago 2
Please see Edwin Black's documentary entitled The Red Line Agreement. The West's quest for Middle Eastern oil and the secret agreement to acquire it at all costs. Reveals the evils of the most deadly oil company on Earth currently known as BP British Petroleum. Ruthless, barbaric ,murderers all.
justaman6972 2 months ago
God Bless his soul. He Built a country with peace and love!
S0TheDreamer 3 months ago 2
1:40 this man dead in 2004
baniyas2011 3 months ago
Outstanding. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Thank you.
Asiidiik 3 months ago
Haha, all the arabs eating daintily with spoons...
Cracks me up. :)
Tonjevic 4 months ago
Driving a 67 Chrysler thru the desert (2:00min)LOL. Bet its a 440ci. V-8.
mrgoodvibrations 4 months ago