Page 136 - The Persian Gulf Historical Summaries (1907-1953) Vol III

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(g)
Letter, dated September 1, 1952, from Petroleum Development (Qatar) Limited,
to the Ruler of Qatar, regarding payments to be made as an interim measure
until the end of 1953
With reference to the Agreement between Your Excellency and the Company
signed to-day, and Your Excellency’s verbal request, my Company is willing to pay,
in addition to the royalty and other payments to become due to Your Excellency
under the said Agreement during the period from the effective date of the Agree­
ment to the end of the year 1953, an amount calculated at the rale of Sh. 10/-
stcrling per ton upon the tonnage of oil exported during that period.
Such additional amount shall be paid as an “ interim ” measure and shall be
recovered out of Convention Payments due to Your Excellency under the said
Agreement in respect of the year 1954 and succeeding years.
Payment of the said amount shall be made by quarterly instalments upon the
dates and in the manner provided for payment of Convention Payments under the
said Agreement.
My Company requests Your Excellency to indicate acceptance of the above
proposals.

(h)
Letter, dated September 1, 1952, from the Ruler of Qatar replying to (g) above
I refer to your letter X. 4 of to-day’s date.
In view of the reduced royalty I shall now receive under the terms of the
Agreement with your Company which we signed to-day, 1 am glad that your
Company is prepared to make the payments referred to in your letter upon the
terms therein stated.
I should be glad if you would treat this letter as my formal acceptance of those
terms.

(i)
Letter, dated November 15, 1953, from Petroleum Development (Qatar) Limited to
the Ruler of Qatar Regarding Payments by the Company for the Use of
Ports
We have the honour to refer to our agreement with Your Excellency dated
1st September, 1952, and our subsequent discussions concerning payments in
respect of ports, Amirs and Customs officials.
These payments were not discussed during the negotiations leading to our
Agreement of 1st September, 1952, but we are convinced that under the wording
of that Agreement they are “ Convention Payments ” and in consequence should
be counted in Your Excellency’s share of profits under Article 2 of the Agreement.
It appears, however, that Your Excellency did not expect the Agreement to
have this effect in the case of these particular payments. We feel it is important to
the future prosperity and co-operation of both parties to our Agreement that this
matter should not remain a source of misunderstanding between ourselves and
we propose below a solution which we hope will give Your Excellency satisfaction.
It must be made clear, however, that the proposal is limited to the payments in
question and shall not have any effect upon the interpretation of our Agreement
in relation to any other payments of matters.
We feel it is equally important that any uncertainty between us concerning
the use of the Ports in Qatar should be settled at the same time as the question of
the payments discussed above.
We therefore have the honour to propose that: —
(1) The arrangements made and agreed by Your Excellency’s father under our
letter QSA.2/4406 dated 12th August, 1946, shall cease to have effect
from 1st January 1953. All payments due and made under the terms
of that letter up to and excluding 1st January, 1953, shall be taken into
account as “ convention payments ” as defined in our Agreement dated
1st September, 1952.
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