THE PERSIAN GULF 1^7 



Petroleum Development Qatar Ltd., an associate of the Iraq Pet- 

 roleum Company, to develop the oil field which their prospectors 

 had proved in the Qatar peninsula in 1940, but which had remain- 

 ed unexploited throughout the war. Now, with the approval of 

 the Ministry of Fuel and Power, it was hoped to export crude oil 

 at an initial rate of 1,000,000 tons a year at the earliest opportu- 

 nity. 



The oil field had been discovered in the south-west of the 

 peninsula and the company had carried out a preliminary survey 

 at the time to find out how best the oil might be shipped from 

 this difficult area. The Dohat as Salwa, the bay which lies between 

 Qatar and the Saudi-Arabian coast running northwards towards 

 Ras at Tannura, was far too shallow and reef-encumbered to permit 

 the approach of tankers, although barge routes were found later 

 in this area through which the equipment for sinking the wells 

 was shipped from Bahrein. So the company surveyors looked to 

 the eastern shores of Qatar and found two or three places where 

 deep water came fairly close to the shore, and where there 

 seemed to be some hope of the deep draught tankers approaching 

 the coast sufficiently close to permit them to embark oil through 

 pipelines led out to the buoys at which the vessels might lie 

 secured. 



The north-west winds, which blow frequently in the winter 

 months and are knowTi as 'shamals', have already been described, 

 and it is these winds, often prevailing for days at a time, which 

 raise short, choppy seas that would seriously interfere with the 

 embarkation of oil through these loading lines. 



Of the various east-coast sites investigated by the oil company 

 surveyors, the place where the deep water came nearest to the 

 shore was about i g miles south of the town of Doha, the seat of 

 the Sheikh of Qatar. Here deep water had been found within 200 

 to 300 feet of the shore, with a long reef known as Fasht al Arrif 

 running to seaward close north of the position which gave that 

 vital protection from the north-westerly shamals. If only this 

 anchorage had suitable access for ships through the maze of reefs 

 which could be seen offshore, then it might prove the ideal 

 position, to which the oil could be piped overland from the west- 

 coast wells, a matter of ^o miles distant. 



But this offshore surveying was beyond the capabilities of any 



