Page 141 - The Origins of the United Arab Emirates_Neat

7 The Preliminary Oil

Concessions: Triumphant
Enterprise i

Almost concurrently with the establishment of the air-route, prelimin­
ary oil concessions were being signed on the Trucial Coast. While
the air-route was vital to British imperial communications, a more
far-reaching achievement was the channelling of the Coast’s oil
into a British-controlled company, thereby laying the foundations
for the economic and political future of the shaykhdoms. Owing
to the interest in oil, two of the main concerns of British policy
on the Coast during the inter-war period were: first, application
of the 1922 agreements by which the rulers were bound to submit
for British approval any commercial agreement regarding oil; and,
second, precise definition of the shaykhdoms’ boundaries. The 1922
agreements and the question of boundaries are central to the history
of the exploration of oil on the Coast—a history that is little
known but highly relevant today.
Taken on its own, the quest for oil agreements can be seen
as a microcosm of the inter-war history of the Trucial Coast. Two
of its most basic features were pitted against the other. The first
was the British policy to keep the Gulf a British lake, and the
second was the general and overriding weakness of the Trucial
shaykhdoms themselves. The confrontation between the rulers, who
wanted the freedom to choose to which company to grant a conces­
sion, and the British authorities, who were determined to enforce
their own choice, resulted in the defeat of the rulers.
It is clear, however, that despite instances of British intervention
during the period of the preliminary oil concessions, British policy
on oil was slow in being developed. It evolved at an unhurried
pace; the problems were discussed as they appeared, little thought

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