Page 142 - The Origins of the United Arab Emirates_Neat

108 7 he Origins oj the United Arab Emirates

being given lo them beforehand. One senses from the available
correspondence that there was little understanding of what the
probability of the existence of oil in commercial quantities might
mean. Despite the discovery of oil in Bahrain in 1932, it seems
that no serious consideration was given to the possibility that a
corresponding discovery might be made on the Trucial Coast. Viewed
from this perspective, the official British attitude primarily reflects
a concern to exclude foreign interests from the Coast, and shows
little interest in purely financial gain.
Any study of oil on the Coast, and, indeed, in Arabia as a
whole, must start from May 1932, when oil was struck in Bahrain.
Not only did this event quicken oil companies’ interest in Arabia,
leading to the granting of a concession to the Standard Oil Company
of California by Saudi Arabia in 1933,2 but, in addition, it also
revived the flagging economy of Bahrain, bringing with it undream-
cd-of prosperity to what had previously been a wretchedly poor
area. The renaissance of Bahrain, which was transformed into a
bustling shaykhdom and the economic centre of Arabia, reaping
unparalleled social and financial advantages, was viewed with admi­
ration by its neighbours, who were eager to stumble on the same
riches themselves. They had first to overcome their instinctive sus­
picion of the machinations of the oil companies, but in a short
while their fears were allayed. Shaykh Shakhbut of Abu Dhabi
was the first of the Trucial shaykhs to approach an oil company,
and in 1934 he suggested that geologists of the Anglo-Persian Oil
Company search for artesian wells in his shaykhdom. Shakhbut’s
greatest interest was in the possibility of the existence of oil, but
he did not want to acknowledge this openly; besides, water was
a more immediate necessity, and both I bn Sa‘ud and Shaykh Hamad
of Bahrain had evinced to the petroleum geologists the same desire
for the discovery of artesian wells. The rulers of Dubai, Sharjah,
Ajman and Umm al-Qaiwain followed with similar requests, but
no water was discovered, although the geologists found Abu Dhabi
particularly promising for oil.
In 1935, Shaykh Sultan bin Salim of Ras al-Khaimah became
the first Trucial Coast shaykh officially to ask for geologists to
explore for oil. Predictably, he took advantage of a visit of the
French destroyer Bougainville in February to ask its commander
for surveyors, rather than ask the British authorities first.3 The
French admiral told Shaykh Sultan that he would try to arrange
to send a geologist; Sultan then reported the details of his conversation
to Fowlc, whose first thought was to exclude French and all other
foreign geologists from the area. Acting on this principle, and con­
vinced that, if there were any signs of oil, negotiations should
be opened immediately, with a view to securing the rights to