Chapter 3 Reading the Rocks - Saudi Aramco

60 energy to the world : Volume one
reading the rocks 61
With an agreement to explore for Arabian oil
finally in hand, the California oil company executives
wasted no time preparing to explore
the vast concession. Even before negotiations
for the concession began, Socal officials scrambled
to put in place the men and materiel
necessary to quickly establish a presence in
Saudi Arabia.
A geologist points to a geologic
fault in Saudi Arabia in 1939. Such
faults may trap oil as it flows
through sedimentary formations.
In 1932, Robert P. “Bert” Miller, a company geologist who would later be in charge of geological
fieldwork in the Kingdom, joined Socal’s operation in Bahrain. As an internal history
of Socal’s early years in Saudi Arabia noted, “While he had definite assignments in Bahrain,
the primary object of sending him at that time had been to make him available in the event
an exploration contract should be obtained from the Saudi [Arabian] Government.”
Why the rush? For one thing, the concession agreement stipulated that Socal should
begin work in Saudi Arabia by the end of September 1933. Second, fortunes were at stake at
a time when Socal was in no position to squander them. Its initial payment of £30,000 to the
Saudi government was to be followed by a second payment of £20,000 18 months after the
signing of the concession. Socal wanted to find out as much as it could about the concession
area in the meantime.
In the worst-case scenario, Socal’s initial exploration could determine there were no
promising oil prospects in al-Hasa, and the company might find it fiscally prudent to terminate
operations before having to make the second payment. But in the “glass half-full/glass halfempty”
world of oil exploration, few decisions are simple. Yes, the company would save £20,000,
but it would also be forced to forfeit its continuing exploration and development rights in the
concession area.
The first Socal geologists to head in-country—Miller and Schuyler B. “Krug” Henry—took
a boat from Bahrain to Saudi Arabia, arriving at the small port town of Jubail the morning
of September 23, 1933. With them was Karl Twitchell, the mining engineer who had helped
Socal negotiate the concession and whom the company had retained to help outfit the geologists.
Using two cars Twitchell had rented in Jiddah and driven in a cross-country caravan
to the Gulf, the party found itself stuck in the sand its first day in the country. Miller and
Henry were forced instead to ride on camels, watched by bemused residents of the area who
had flocked to Jubail to witness their arrival. For an enterprise that would be—even in ideal
circumstances—an extraordinary challenge, this was a less than auspicious start.