8.1 PD(TC) Instructed to Try for the Water

At the beginning of March 1952, Superior Oil Company informed the IPC that they were going to withdraw from their concessions to search for oil beneath the waters around Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Superior offered these concession agreements to IPC but Groups, the IPC owners, none of them were willing to take up the offer on the basis of an IPC “Group company” arrangement, but they said that they might be interested individually under a different arrangement. They thereby prevented the IPC group as a whole from negotiating for these areas.

Since none of the companies reacted positively to Superior's offer they abandoned the concessions. It soon became clear that the American groups in IPC were not interested in the areas neither on their own nor in partnership with another company. Shell, AIOC (BP) and the French indicated that they might be interested in obtaining concessions. However AIOC and the French would have preferred to postpone discussions with Qatar until after the IPC (Qatar Petroleum Company) had completed their negotiations there concerning their existing Qatar concession on the land. Shell did not agree with such a delay and took the initiative, sending a party out to Doha to investigate the possibility of negotiating a concession; they informed the others of their action the evening before their party flew out to the Gulf. At the same time both AIOC and the French expressed an interest in the Abu Dhabi waters.

8.2 AIOC (D’Arcy or BP) Try for the Water

Cox, the AIOC geologist, believed that of the three areas abandoned by Superior the Abu Dhabi marine areas held the best prospects. But D‘Arcy's enthusiasm was somewhat dampened by two possible drawbacks.

There was the outstanding Saudi Arabian claim to a large piece of Abu Dhabi territory and waters, and if this claim succeeded the concession areas, both marine and on land would be reduced by half, or considerably more if one takes into account the 1949 claim. The second problem was that there were reported to be ever more rumours of growing dissatisfaction among the Bedouin with the rule of Sheikh Shakhbut. In spite of this Geoffrey Stockwell representing D’Arcy (AIOC) visited the Trucial Coast and Qatar in May 1952.

5.1 A New Decade

1 January 1950 ushered in a new decade. The Second World War with all the attendant disasters and troubles was of the last decade. London was looking forward to the ‘Festival of Britain’ which I too attended in 1951. In the ‘Dome of Discovery’ we could wonder at the modern television-like monitors (small and black and white) such as we had only seen in a few shop windows. Here they proudly displayed the achievements of British research and industry. The imaginative slim ‘Skylon’, its pointed ends top and bottom, one secure and the other stretching up into the sky has long since disappeared but the Royal Festival Hall is still buzzing with activity. In London the second Elizabethan age was ushered in in 1952, with the accession of Queen Elizabeth. The following years of the decade witnessed a revolution in domestic affairs, as the country increasingly looked inwards, and there was a corresponding decline in British influence worldwide.

The Trucial Coast, unknown and of no interest to most of the world, was also entering a new era. There was expectation, and disappointment ahead. The pearl industry, struggling for a couple of decades was about to give way to the oil industry. Codrai wrote in October 1950 that the current year's pearling season had been very good and profitable for Dubai. But other reports tell us that the pearling dhows, one after another through the decade abandoned their age-old occupation while the oil industry in its all too slow arrival mirrored the equally slow decline of the pearl trade. Dubai was again ‘bucking the trend’ and in January 1951 Henderson wrote that the proceeds from the customs were reported to be ‘over one lac per month. (these are nett proceeds and exclude the slice taken by the customs chief)’ Then he also wrote ‘Trade appears to be increasing daily, and Captain Holden declared the creek navigable to all company craft.’

The company was about to drill the first well on the Trucial Coast. The hardships suffered by divers were soon to pass into history as slowly the opportunity to earn a regular wage was becoming possible either at home or in one of the neighbouring countries.

Appendix 120: Sheikh Shakhbut's Return from London Aug. ‘53

Codrai witnessed Shaikh Shakhbut's return from London via Bahrain on 8 August 1953. Shaikh Shakhbut returned to Abu Dhabi on 8th August. He travelled back from Bahrain by a Gulf Aviation Aircraft, but the pilot was unwilling to land at Abu Dhabi, and put the Ruler down at Tarif. Most of the Ruler's close relatives, including all his brothers (Khalid among them with whom he had not spoken for nearly a year), and the Representative [PD(TC)] were awaiting his arrival at Abu Dhabi, and had to repair to Tarif, where they were feasted by the Company. The following day the Ruler and the whole party travelled by road to Abu Dhabi, where they narrowly missed disaster. Swiftly turning the corner of the Fort, to get through the sand, the leading car carrying the Ruler and the Representative was fired on at point blank range by one of a line of canons which had been loaded to fire a welcome. Fortunately the canon had been packed with nothing harder than palm fronds, which were sprayed all over the car. The following cars braked to a standstill alongside the canons, when suddenly the advancing committee of welcome, which had been waiting outside the Fort, took to its heels, and disappeared back into the Fort. At the same time the Ruler's party saw that one of the canons was furiously belching smoke out of its rear end, and everyone quickly dismounted and disappeared from sight round the corner of the Fort, until the canon, which had looked very much as if it would explode, had exhausted itself.

Shaikh Shakhbut claims to be feeling much better, although he still appears to be very weak.

Travellers to Abu Dhabi will have spent long hours waiting for the tide to recede, would now find the scene much changed. A causeway connects the island to the mainland, and there is a stone guards’ post a short distance from it, on the Abu Dhabi side. A two-storeyed post, with a majlis for the Shaikhs, has been completed at the end of the causeway, on the mainland.

For many people there is little in common between the land of the United Arab Emirates and the corner of Arabia previously known as the Trucial Coast, Trucial Oman, Trucial States, etc.

There are many people, both nationals and foreigners, who have little knowledge of the former and none of the latter.

Today, this observation is particularly true for many of the local people who have only known fine air-conditioned houses, shopping malls, expensive cars, and lavish trips abroad.

Similarly many foreigners, having perhaps seen the name Abu Dhabi on the side of a London taxi, arrive at the modern airport: they are conveyed in comfort to a first class hotel, they go to offices to conduct business, and in due course leave again along the tree lined road to the airport. They could have been in any one of a dozen places in the world. Many of those foreigners who stay longer may see more of the land and perhaps the desert, and complain that it is difficult to get to know an Emirati national. When I first came here to this land, more than half a century ago, there was little awareness beyond its borders of Abu Dhabi's existence. Before the discovery of oil, the region occasionally hit the headlines of the press in London, and then after a brief moment of fame, slid back into near obscurity.

The towns of the Trucial Coast were known to occasional foreign visitors, but the interior was definitely an unknown ‘no go’ area for foreigners. It was not until 1948 that a European, the explorer Wilfred Thesiger, managed to pass, on a camel, through the inaccessible heart of the land, the Liwa oases. It was to be another few years before Codrai and Chatton took the first vehicle over high dunes and through soft sand to make it to Arada in the west of those oases. That was in June 1953 and they were in a Land Rover.

Those were the days when most people living on the Trucial Coast were born in, brought up in, and still lived in huts constructed of palm fronds. Asphalted roads with lights, and telephones, electricity and sanitation in the houses were more than a decade away, and beyond most peoples’ experience and comprehension. On my first visit to the Northern Emirates in 1968 I saw children whose faces were crawling with flies, the children had long ago abandoned the unequal battle to keep the flies away.

Appendix 13: Lermitte's List of Tribal Leaders

Baraimi Oasis.

Hafit village.

Qabl village and Sanainah village.

Dhank village.

Yankul village.

Between Dhank and Ibri.

‘Ibri village

Mohd bin Abdulla bin Rashid, Llagib tribe.

Appendix 1: Wheatley to Gibson 29/4/’40

Dear Mr. Gibson,

Referring to your letter No. PZ.5742/39 of the 20th September 1939 and to our recent conversation, we do not propose, in the existing circumstances, to resume our exploration surveys in the Trucial Coast area during the winter 1940/41.

The organisation and maintenance of the geophysical and geological parties required for the surveys will necessitate the expenditure of foreign exchange for the purchase of equipment, and the employment of American staff, and we do not feel justified in making application to the Treasury for such foreign exchange for operations which cannot be productive during the course of this war.

Furthermore, the supply of foodstuffs and fresh water from India or elsewhere during the war to parties on the Trucial Coast would probably be difficult and precarious.

Our Bahrain manager reports that “it would seem that long before any surveys are renewed on the Trucial Coast, the whole situation will require re-examination”. I am not clear what he has in mind and have asked for more information, but I gather from other reports that the influence and control of the Shaikhs outside their headquarter towns is no better than it was during the season 1938/39.

Drilling will be continued at Qatar and the number of rigs may be increased if the second well, now about to be drilled, is as successful as the first.

The usual annual payments to the Shaikhs will be made under the terms of the Concessions, and I will arrange for Lermitte to pay them visits to explain why our operations have been temporarily postponed.

Appendix 1: Wheatley to Gibson 29/4/’40

Dear Mr. Gibson,

Referring to your letter No. PZ.5742/39 of the 20th September 1939 and to our recent conversation, we do not propose, in the existing circumstances, to resume our exploration surveys in the Trucial Coast area during the winter 1940/41. The organisation and maintenance of the geophysical and geological parties required for the surveys will necessitate the expenditure of foreign exchange for the purchase of equipment, and the employment of American staff, and we do not feel justified in making application to the Treasury for such foreign exchange for operations which cannot be productive during the course of this war.

Furthermore, the supply of foodstuffs and fresh water from India or elsewhere during the war to parties on the Trucial Coast would probably be difficult and precarious. Our Bahrain manager reports that “it would seem that long before any surveys are renewed on the Trucial Coast, the whole situation will require re-examination”. I am not clear what he has in mind and have asked for more information, but I gather from other reports that the influence and control of the Shaikhs outside their headquarter towns is no better than it was during the season 1938/39.

David Heard CBE studied physics and geology before joining the London based Abu Dhabi Petroleum Company in Abu Dhabi in August 1963. Working for more than a decade as a Petroleum Engineer he participated in the discovery of oil in the Abu Dhabi desert. Thereafter he was for more than two decades the Representative of the same company in Abu Dhabi. He married in 1967 the historian Dr. Frauke Heard- Bey who then joined him in Abu Dhabi, where they both still live in retirement. They have a son and two daughters. David and Frauke were fortunate to meet both Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan and Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan on many occasions. David is a member of Chatham House, The Royal Society for Asian Affairs, the Travellers Club, and is a Fellow of the Energy Institute, all based in London. He published ‘From Pearls to Oil, How the Oil Industry came to the United Arab Emirates’ in 2011.

Appendix 52: Memo Longrigg to Skliros 30/9/’48

The waters east of the Qatar peninsula and north of the Trucial Coast are, as you know, full of islands, reefs, rocks and pearl banks. These are not all adequately shown on the Admiralty charts.

Two hydrographic surveys in the Gulf are now in process by the U.S. and British Navies respectively. Both presumably will cover the Qatar – Trucial Coast waters.

H.M.G. has not made up its mind upon the subject of waters outside the 3-mile limit of territories. On the other hand, we know that islands which can show some sign of occupation or ownership are assigned to the Ruler who appears to have owned or occupied, and for this purpose fish traps, cairns, flags, huts, etc. are accepted as evidence. Hawar island is an example of this and possibly also the two Reefs north-west of Qatar which are apparently to be allocated to Bahrain on the strength of some such evidence.

Mr. Bird has suggested that the Company should carry out a survey of all the waters concerned; but in view of Naval work now in progress and the formidable nature of the task, I doubt whether this would be justified, especially as survey details (such as depths of water) would not have much relevance as to ownership. He further suggests, however, that “we should galvanise the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi for one and possibly the Shaikh of Qatar into staking his or their claims by the erection of distinguishing marks … to signify ownership. This would need careful handling, but is quite practicable”. This seems to me a valuable suggestion and the Marine Department (Captains Pilditch and Holden) confirm that they have the means of helping if it be a case of taking representatives of the Trucial Shaikhs out to the islands, locating these, possibly photographing cairns, etc. which are erected, acting as subsequent witnesses, and making sure that no strategic points are missed. Such organisation could be kept completely in the background and nothing much need be visible to the outside world, except the occupancy marks (no doubt corresponding with time-honoured pearling rights) erected by the Shaikhs of the mainland.

Appendix 70: Henderson to Lermitte 14/6/’51

14th June, 1951

Dear Mr. Lermitte,

While in Abu Dhabi over the matter of the Sadr strike I handed over the report on drilling. The main reaction was an outburst of a type similar I believe to that which you experienced at Tarif. The main points are:

• a. The company is working slowly and does not intend to get oil.

• b. The company must give up the concession

• c. The company must at least give up that part of the concession where it does not believe is oil.

Other points were:

• a. Beginning work in Jebel Ali before we drill again in Abu Dhabi is criminal.

• b. Sadr is stripped to supply Jabal Ali.

• When I explained that everything necessary to drilling in Sadr was still there, and would remain there until the next well in Abu Dhabi was begun, he stated as an example that 20 fans had been removed.

• c. That other companies were bound by their concessions to dig an artesian well wherever they did seismic work.

• d. That we were occupying land at Sadr without benefit to Abu Dhabi…

• e. That the concession as a whole was cheat.

• f. That we did not give him detailed geological information and maps. The drilling report had not impressed him.

I made the obvious replies to some of the remarks…

No doubt you have heard some or all of these observations. I thought however, for record purposes at least, they should be noted.

10.1 Where are they?

The Liwa oases lie, dotted along a crescent shape, in the southern desert of Abu Dhabi. They are in the form of a string of small settlements, about 100 miles from east to west, each nestling on the side of exceptionally high sand dunes. They are believed to have been occupied for centuries and long before the fort was constructed on Abu Dhabi Island, the presence of which was first reported in British records in 1761. Archaeologists continue to reveal coastal and island settlements going back thousands of years and Abu Dhabi Island could have been among them, but all such possible evidence on this island has been obliterated by modern development. Fresh water such as that found in the high dunes of the Liwa is of a high quality. Although there are many brackish water wells in the Abu Dhabi sands there are very few wells in the arid desert to match those of Liwa.

When I arrived in Abu Dhabi in 1963 there was still no road between the coast and Liwa, indeed there was not to be an alternative to grinding ones way, pushing a roaring engine in second or third gear, over the undulating dunes for another two decades. There was a strange feeling of mystery, of the remote and inaccessible, when I first heard about the Liwa oases, almost beyond reach by motor transport until recently. There is no record of any Europeans managing to visit before Thesiger.1 He did not approach the oases from Abu Dhabi, from the north, but he came from the south, abhorring motor vehicles and riding on a camel in 1946-47. The air of mystery is heightened in my mind by the memory of the day that I first heard of these oases when I had an eerie experience in the desert south of Habshan. I did not know about Thesiger in those days and had only once briefly visited Abu Dhabi town.

Early one morning in November 1963, I was standing on the floor of a drilling rig surrounded by fog. The damp white mist rolled in over the dunes, muffling the roar of the rig engines. I looked up from making an entry in my notebook to see three sand-coloured Land Rovers emerge, what seemed to be silently, out of the fog and glide over the sand towards us.

1.1 Why is There so Much Oil in the United Arab Emirates?

We all know that there are vast reserves of oil deep down under the ground in many of the countries of the Middle East, but do we wonder why, and then ask a few simple questions? The first question is: Why is the oil there at all? Then the next question that I hear from time to time is whether there are lakes or great caves underground full of oil, perhaps connected to rich sources so big that the oil will flow for ever. – Or perhaps the oil reservoirs are refilled in the same way as rain water refills the underground water reservoirs. Unfortunately none of this is true.

Before I continue the story of the early days of the oil industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) I would like to address these questions and give short answers. I will explain briefly why the oil is there and at the same time demonstrate that there are no such caves. But I will not take much of your time doing this since there is plenty of literature available that you, the reader, can refer to should I have managed to arouse your interest.

Firstly, oil takes a very long time (millions of years) to form. Then it has to gather together migrating through the rocks under the force of gravity to rock formations which trap it and hold it. The crude oil and the natural gas that we find deep below the surface of the land and beneath the waters of the Emirates comes from the living creatures that died, fell to the bottom of the sea and decayed about 60 million years ago. At the same time large rivers carrying mud, stones and other debris were forming deltas where they entered the waters of the same sea, just like the Nile or Rhine deltas today.

Over the millions of years the sediments were slowly pushed down deep into the earth by their own accumulating weight as well as by movements of the crust of the earth. Most rocks, in particular those formed from the sediments, have many tiny spaces between the individual grains, and these spaces, called pores, which may represent up to one third of the total volume of the rock, contain water and perhaps oil. Where these pore spaces are connected the oil and water are able to flow through the rocks, and while flowing they became separated by gravity; oil is lighter than water so the oil can rise and collect above the water.

Appendix 7: Lermitte to Ruler of Sharjah 26/9/’45

T/SA.15/4030 26th September, 1945.

His Excellency Sultan bin Saqr al Qassim,

Ruler of Sharjah,

Sharjah.

Your Excellency,

Your Excellency will remember that in the years 1937 (1356) and 1938 (1357) the Company was in correspondence with Your Excellency on the subject of a visit by our company geologists to the Jabel Faiyah area. Your Excellency was unable to arrange the visit at this time. Later in your 161 dated 18th Ramadan ‘57 Your Excellency drew the Company's attention to paragraph ‘C’ of schedule No. 1 to the Company's Oil Concession Agreement of 1937 (by which your Excellency's formal permission in writing is necessary before a company party can visit the Al Faiyah area). In 1939 war broke out and the question of this visit was not followed up.

The war has now ended and plans are being made for geological work on the Trucial Coast. Work is expected to commence about January 1946 (Safar 1365) and will continue up to the end of the cool season. We shall be glad if Your Excellency will make the necessary arrangements for our geologists to visit the Jebel Faiyah area in January 1946 (Safar 1365) and provide the necessary friends and guards to ensure that the party can do their geological work in safety and without hindrance. The party will remain in the Al Faiyah area as long as necessary for them to complete their work. We shall be pleased if Your Excellency will inform us in writing as soon as the visit is arranged with full particulars in order that our geologists will have time to make their programme. Your Excellency's letter should also include the formal permission for the company's party to visit the Al Faiyah area as laid down in para ‘C’ of Schedule No. 1 to the Sharjah Oil Concession Agreement of 1937 between the company and Your Excellency.

We are making this request with the knowledge of the Hon’ble Political Resident in the Persian Gulf and the Political Agent, Bahrain. We shall be grateful if Your Excellency will acknowledge receipt of this letter.

11.1 Frustrations

Soon after the Ra's Sadr well was abandoned as a dry hole in April 1951 and while operations were getting under way to drill a well at Jebel Ali in Dubai territory, Sheikh Shakhbut was asking PD(TC) about their future intentions in his land. The company personnel, Henderson and Codrai, who called on the Sheikh from time to time, were again and again receiving increasingly strongly worded verbal protests about the lack of activity on the part of the company in his territory. They were able to give him only the vaguest plans about PD(TC)'s future operations and were unable to assure him that work would be resumed in his land in the near future.

Sheikh Shakhbut was told, once again, that PD(TC) was unable to enter the western half of his territory. They said that the imposition of the ban by HMG was, in part, due to his lack of interest in the area. Because of this the Saudis were able to have a large part of his land included in the area where oil related activity was now suspended. It appears that this was a criticism commonly made at that time about Sheikh Shakhbut and sometimes directly to him. He had his reply ready and that was that the Company had drilled only one well. He also said, on a number of occasions, that if PD(TC) could not start working again in the remaining area, the eastern half of Abu Dhabi territory, they should give up the concession.

11.2 Another Well in Abu Dhabi Territory

Lermitte knew very well, and reported to London, that Sheikh Shakhbut would be extremely annoyed if PD (TC) did not arrange to drill again very soon in his territory. Heseldin1 suggested that a well should be drilled in territory claimed by Saudi Arabia, and in the event that Abu Dhabi lost the territory, the company would at least have gained very valuable information. The geology of the underground rock formations in the area between Dukhan in Qatar and Ra's Sadr needed to be investigated as at that time it was only possible to extrapolate the known information about the rocks over the long distance between Qatar and Abu Dhabi territory. The PD(TC) plan was to bring a seismic party in during April 1952 to work through that western area for a couple of months.

4.1 Poverty, Gossip and Intrigue

I am asking you, the reader to go back in time to before Bird had his frustrating experiences living at Jahili. Those were the days before air conditioning and modern conveniences, a time when life on the Trucial Coast was really hard.

It was a time when men rode on camels, or donkeys, or went on foot to travel between the towns, villages and oases of the Emirates, or as one used to say in those days ‘the Sheikhdoms.’ The staple diet for most people consisted of their own products, dates from the oases and milk from the camels. They also enjoyed salted and dried fish while rice, tea, coffee and sugar were imported and were of variable quality and availability in particular during the World War years and for some time after. Those in the desert were familiar with the various herbs and they enjoyed delicacies such as birds’ eggs and truffles which were available in season. Water wells in the desert varied from brackish to good quality drinking water in the Liwa oasis and in the oases on the mountain foreland. In the coastal towns there was easier access to imported goods including canned food, but they suffered from very bad water from their wells and they imported costly drinking water, sometimes from as far away as Bombay.

Rain was God's blessing in this parched land and even the raindrops falling into the sea were believed by some to be the origin of the pearls. And it was these products of the oyster that men went to seek, under terrible working conditions during the hot and humid summer months. Hundreds of the men sailed out to suffer hardship for months at sea to dive for pearls to satisfy the vanity of mankind and adorn the necks of the ladies in Bombay, London and Paris.

While these men were on the pearl banks they left their families at home in Liwa or if they lived on the coast many of their families fled the summer humidity going inland to the oases. There the temperatures were higher but the humidity was low and they enjoyed the luxury of fresh fruit and vegetables and above all, sweet fresh water. The decline and collapse of the pearl industry deprived men of a very significant part of their livelihood and there was no alternative employment possible in these lands of parched desert and barren mountains.

Appendix 97: Bird to Jackson 11/12/’51

We are doing our best at this end to try and work out some solution for the Baraimi problem amongst others and, for your own private information, we are now prepared to accept the position of having to pay Rs.3/- per ton to the Shaikh concerned and also to the Sultan of Muscat. We have told the F.O. and asked them if it is not possible to come to some arrangement whereby we are at liberty to obtain a concession from the Shaikhs without infringing the sovereign rights of the Sultan. The F.O. are examining this suggestion and we can do nothing more at this present stage.

I think it would be a good idea if Edward [Henderson] or Codrai could convey to the Baraimi people the fact that we are doing our best to help them and that we hope that they will not be stupid enough to accept bribes from the Sa’udi authorities which might conceivably end up by them themselves not benefitting from the operations of an oil company and having to sit back and watch the proceeds being handed over to Ibn Sa’ud; in their own interests they would be well advised to resist any pressure from the Sa’udis and to rely on H.M.G. and ourselves to give them a much squarer deal than they would otherwise get.

Do you think it would be any good my writing personally to Saqr, Ubaid, Bin Rahmah, and, if so, would you draft me a letter which will, of course, have to be very carefully worded and, at present, rather non-committal but at the same time encouraging?

Appendix 98: Bird's Notes on Meeting with Sheikh Shakhbut 4/3/’52

While sipping our coffee cups in Abu Dhabi Fort, Shaikh Shakhbut told Mr. Bird about the warm welcome his brother Haza’ received in Muscat during his recent visit to the Sultan. Shakhbut also mentioned the complimentary letter he had received from the Sultan on this occasion. In his letter, Shaikh Shakhbut said, the Sultan expressed his wish to restore the good relations between himself and Shaikh Shakhbut to what they were during the times of their ancestors.

3.1 PD(TC) to Have a Man at Buraimi/Al ‘Ain

The IPC associated company, (later named Qatar Petroleum Company, QPC), had found oil in Qatar in 1939 and, after a long delay caused by the Second World War, was preparing to start exports in 1949. The discovery of oil in Qatar meant that the chances of finding oil on the Trucial Coast including in Abu Dhabi territory had improved considerably, but the oil exploration geologists still had their eyes turned towards the mountains and rock outcrops of the Sultanate of Oman.

They had examined the small amount of geology visible on the surface of the earth on the Trucial Coast and knew that the way forward for Abu Dhabi and the rest of the sheikhdoms was to bring in the geophysicists and hopefully then the drillers.

Across the border in the Sultanate of Oman there are mountains, fine rock exposures and, for the geologists, a lot of ‘very good’ geology. But, although the company had a concession agreement with the Sultan dating from 1937, they had still not received permission from the Sultan to allow the geologists enjoy more than a brief look at a very limited area.

Unfortunately the Sultan was unable to assert his authority over many of his subjects in the interior of his land and so he could not guarantee the safety of strangers who would be regarded with suspicion or even hostility by the people.

The company had a separate agreement covering Dhofar, the southern province of Oman, where political conditions were very different, and the Sultan was able to assert his authority. They had already arranged for geologists M. Morton and R. Wetzel to go there early in 1948 to conduct a survey. The capital town of Dhofar is Salalah, on the Indian Ocean coast more than a thousand kilometres to the south from Buraimi; it was the Sultan's favourite retreat. There the mountains lying between the coast and the Rub al Khali (Empty Quarter) desert benefit from the summer rains brought by the monsoon. The climate, at least in the coastal area and on the nearby hills, is altogether more pleasant than at Muscat.

Unfortunately in the rest of Oman, the larger part of the country, the Sultan ruled over a divided land where much of the interior and away from the coast, was in the hands of the Imam and his supporters.