Naft Khana

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Naft Khana is an Iraqi town in Diyala Governorate, central Iraq, near the Iraqi-Iranian border. [1] Its population were Kurdish nationality during the Iran-Iraq war. Its residents were displaced according to the Arabization policy. Nearby are oil fields containing oil wells found by British companies after the British occupation in 1924. [2] It is considered one of the richest areas in the Diyala Governorate. [3]

Contents

Iraq-Iran war

And it turned into a purely military area, where Iraqi army established camps and headquarters for the border guards, and after the American-Iraqi war, and after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, specifically in the year 2003, Kurdish families began to return to this area, but they found it a barren desert inhabited only by wolves. [4] [5]

Oil field

The border in 1897 Mosul Province 1897.png
The border in 1897
Eastern Line RR network Iraq railways - btv1b53197284j.jpg
Eastern Line RR network

Approximate location as per a 1948 World Oil map: 34°00′43″N45°26′28″E / 34.01193°N 45.44113°E / 34.01193; 45.44113 [6]

The territory belonging to present-day Iraq was part of Transferred Territory, land that was given by Persia to the Ottoman Empire (Treaty of Constantinople of November 17, 1913) and then became part of the Kingdom of Iraq. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company had acquired rights over the area with the 1901 d'Arcy concession and those rights were safeguarded under the land transfer. [7] Full text of Annex B of the 17 November 1913 protocol: [8]

The field was "discovered" in 1918 by George Whitfield Halse (1885-1968), who on the request of the British Army prospected for sources of oil closer to the frontline (than Abadan). He left the area in 1918 or 1919, but based on his conclusions, in 1923 oil was struck and Naft Khaneh became the second oil field discovered in the Middle East. [9]

APOC formally agreed on August 30, 1925 to form a subsidiary within 3 months to take over the assets in the Transferred Territory and to construct without undue delay a refinery. [10] In the agreement of May 24, 1926 the company agreed to sell its products inside Iraq at a price not higher than the Turkish Petroleum Company (as specified in the March 14, 1925 TPC concession) and to pay a 4 shilling royalty per ton of oil exported from Iraq, subject to a future adjustment peg to world market prices. In return the 1901 d'Arcy concession inside the Transferred Territories was affirmed and extended by 35 years to May 27, 1996. The agreement was ratified as Law No. 58 for 1926 ("Law for the concession of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Limited"). [11]

The Iraqi part of the field was transferred to the Khanaqin Oil Company (subsidiary of APOC) in 1925, named after the nearby Iraqi town where a small topping plant was also set up, [7] and put into operation on May 7, 1927. [12] In the 1920s a 24-mile 4-inch line was laid to connect the field to the refinery. [13] Distribution of the products of the refinery was the business of the Rafidain Oil Co., which had depots at the major population centers. [14] Rafidain Oil was a subsidiary of the Iraq Petroleum Company and formed in May 1932 to take over this obligation from the Khanaqin Oil Company, in accordance with Article 14 ("Oil for local consumption") of the March 14, 1925 concession. [15] The APOC only held a 23.75% share in the Iraq Petroleum Company, while its share in Khanaqin Oil was 100%. Khanaqin was connected via metre-gauge railroad to Baghdad in 1918.

The Kermanshah Petroleum Oil Company (also subsidiary of APOC) was formed in 1934 to develop the Iranian side (called Naft-i-Shah). In 1935 a 158-mile 3-inch pipeline to Kermanshah was completed over difficult terrain. It had 4 pumping stations, three powered by 3 x 45bhp diesel engines (9 total) and one by steam (at the field) with high pressure horizontal reciprocating maximum 1,500 psi pumps in each. The pipe manufactured by Stewarts & Lloyds was electrically welded and tested to a pressure of 2,300 psi. A 3000 bbl/day topping plant was built in Kermanshah. [7] [16] [17]

Production was concentrated on the Iraqi side of the border. By year's end 1947, the cumulative production of the entire field was 36 million barrels, of which 27 million had come from Naft Khaneh wells. [18]

While the new government of Iraq had affirmed the concession in 1926, it forced a renegotiation in 1951 and gave the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (new name given to the APOC) 7 years to increase production to 40,000bpd or lose the right. The two-well field only reached 12,000 and so on November 30, 1958 the government took full ownership of the field from AIOC, now renamed BP. At that time the average production had fallen back to 4,450bpd. [19]

With an agreement signed December 25, 1951, the Iraqi government bought the Alwand refinery and the distribution facilities of Rafidain. But, the companies were given a concession to operate the refinery and distribution center and also the projected Daura refinery until 1961. [20]

Oil Production, Naft Khaneh field
BarrelsAverage barrels/day
1927300,000 [21] : 43  [22] not full year
1947ca. 7000 [18]
19482,885,000 [23] 7,904
19492,864,520 [24] 7,848
19513,321,200 [25] 9,100
19523,739,200 [25] 10,245
19533,900,000 [26] 10,685
Production of the Alwand Refinery, FY ending March 31, barrels [27]
GasolineKeroseneFuel Oil
1931106,908108,164365,500
1932105,694115,994392,819
1933100,505111,345413,966

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References

  1. ↑ "PMF deploys troops on Naft Khana road - Shafaq News". PMF deploys troops on Naft Khana road - Shafaq News. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  2. ↑ "Naft Khana, Iraq - Geographical Names, map, geographic coordinates". geographic.org. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  3. ↑ "Naft Khana field | Iraq Business News" . Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  4. ↑ Hasan, DWF LLP-Hadeel A.; Kiryushin, Slava (2021-05-29). "First-step analysis: the oil market and regulation in Iraq". Lexology. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  5. ↑ "حقول النفط في العراق بقلم الدكتور منذر ظاهر نصيف – كلية العلوم | جامعة ديالى" (in Arabic). Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  6. ↑ "IRAQ-Producing Area". World Oil. Vol. 128. July 1948. p. 297.
  7. 1 2 3 "Naft-i-Shah and Naft Khaneh Oil Fields". World Petroleum. Vol. 9, no. 7. July 1938. p. 86.
  8. ↑ "File R2314/6A/4118/655/Jacket1 - British Mandates over Irak - Correspondence respecting concessions granted by the Mandatory Power". THE SUBLIME PORTE declares that it recognises that the Concession shall be maintained in full force and validity in the Transferred Territories and that the Concession, in accordance with Article the first of the Convention, constitutes an absolute and exclusive monopoly within the limitation of the rights acquired under the Concession throughout the whole extent of the Transferred Territories...
  9. ↑ Proceedings of the Geological Society of London 1968 - Obituaries. 1968. p. 137.
  10. ↑ "File R2314/6A/4118/655/Jacket1 - British Mandates over Irak - Correspondence respecting concessions granted by the Mandatory Power". AGREEMENT MADE THE THIRTIETH DAY OF AUGUST ONE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE BETWEEN, HIS EXCELLENCY SÀBÏH BEG NASHAT, ACTING MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND WORKS ACTING ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT OF IRAQ OF THE ONE PART AND MR. WILFRID, E C. GREENWOOD, ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGER OF THE ANGLO-PERSIAN OIL COMPANY. LIMITED ...
  11. ↑ "File R2314/6A/4118/655/Jacket1 - British Mandates over Irak - Correspondence respecting concessions granted by the Mandatory Power". AGREEMENT MADE THIS TWENTFOURTH DAY OF MAY. ONE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND TWENTY SIX
  12. ↑ "Anglo-Persian Fires Up Another Plant". National Petroleum News. Vol. 19, no. 23. 8 June 1927. p. 105.
  13. ↑ "Development of Pipe Lines Abroad". The Oil and Gas Journal. Vol. 29, no. 3. 5 June 1930. p. T-136.
  14. ↑ "Refining in Iraq". Institute of Petroleum Review. Vol. 6, no. 64. April 1952. p. 118.
  15. ↑ Report by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Council of the League of Nations on the Administration of ‘Iraq for the period January to October, 1932 (Report).
  16. ↑ "Another Pipeline for Middle East". World Petroleum. Vol. 5, no. 11. November 1934. p. 429.
  17. ↑ "World Oil Refineries Survey". The Oil and Gas Journal. Vol. 40, no. 33. 25 December 1941. p. 110.
  18. 1 2 "Highlights on 1947 Developments in Foreign Petroleum Fields". Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Vol. 32, no. 6. June 1948. p. 1146.
  19. ↑ "BP Gives Iraq Oil Field". The Oil and Gas Journal. Vol. 56, no. 47. 24 November 1958. p. 61.
  20. ↑ "19 December 1951 - 2 January 1952". Chronology of International Events and Documents. 8 (1). January 1952.
  21. ↑ Report by His Britannic Majesty's Government to the Council of the League of Nations on the Administration of ‘Iraq for the year 1927 (Report). 1928.
  22. ↑ United States Bureau of Mines (30 March 1940). "Crude Petroleum Conversion Factors". International Petroleum Trade. Vol. 9, no. 3. p. 128.
  23. ↑ "IRAQ". World Oil. Vol. 129, no. 4. 15 July 1949. p. 232.
  24. ↑ "International Operations Issue 1950 - IRAQ". World Oil. Vol. 131, no. 2. 2 July 1950. p. 211.
  25. 1 2 "Iraq...New pipe lines enable nation to increase proeuction to 384,326-barrel daily average". World Oil. Vol. 137, no. 3. 15 August 1953. p. 184.
  26. ↑ "Iraq..." World Oil. Vol. 139, no. 3. 15 August 1954. p. 100.
  27. ↑ "Oil and Gas Development in Iraq, 1933". Transactions of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers. 107. 1934.
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