[HN Gopher] Map of Near and Middle East Oil 1965
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Map of Near and Middle East Oil 1965
Author : warrenm
Score : 90 points
Date : 2025-09-29 13:33 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.davidrumsey.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.davidrumsey.com)
| eschulz wrote:
| The the font for the title of the map meant to allude to the
| style of Arabic writing? It looks crazy.
| saljam wrote:
| the arabic writing is also crazy, so i have no idea what author
| was going for.
| SirFatty wrote:
| More like it's imitating Persian writing...
| Aspos wrote:
| What is Persian writing?
| arnsholt wrote:
| Arabic script as written in Iran (and Pakistan I think) is
| in a different style than most of the rest of the world.
| The style is called Nastaliq (the more common one being
| Naskh).
| jahewson wrote:
| Yes I think that's what it is - only the writing on the
| map uses a horizontal baseline whereas the real script
| uses a sloping baseline so it looks weird here.
| tejtm wrote:
| Isn't it rebranded now as Farsi. Why? I do not know.
| notherhack wrote:
| "Verification failed. You cannot access this page."
| dredmorbius wrote:
| You may have to enable several Google domains to view the full
| map.
| chiffre01 wrote:
| Just going to leave this here:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrocurrency
| SirFatty wrote:
| That's a great website! The linked map is certainly interesting,
| but there's all kinds of map and map related info there. Thanks
| for the link!
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| The presumably Brezhnev caricature is an amusing touch.
| wyldfire wrote:
| Is he the figure shown in Russian Turkistan with fists raised,
| in circles?
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| I assume so, they were the leader of the USSR in 65 and that
| looks like his hairline.
| pimlottc wrote:
| Non-AI description from original publication note (Robert Frew,
| 2025) [0]:
|
| > "Original large colour-printed map of the Middle East (95 x 126
| cm), laid down onto board and in original frame, unglazed.
| Includes detailed inset maps of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, the
| Persian Gulf, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, and Turkey
| (2x), and Kamaran (Yemen). Also included is a detailed table
| entitled 'Owners of Concessions, Leases, Permits, & Contracts',
| 4x statistical tables on the production and consumption of oil,
| and a detailed key. Extremely rare, genuinely imposing and highly
| attractive map that showcases the petroleum industry across the
| Middle East and adjacent regions.
|
| > It is the seventh edition of a sequence of maps on the subject
| produced in Fort Worth, Texas, by Brian Orchard Lisle, a
| flamboyant and well-known oil trade insider, founder of industry-
| leading magazine The Oil Forum. This map offers an unrivaled
| visual record of the state of play in the oil industry at a
| critical stage in its development, when the oil assets of Iran,
| Iraq, and Kuwait were still controlled by British concerns,
| although being challenged by nationalist movements.
|
| > It covers an area from the Aegean and Libya in the west, to the
| frontiers of India in the east, while the Gulf, epicentre of the
| petroleum world, occupies pride of place. The greatest
| concentrations of oilfields are located in south-eastern Iran,
| Kuwait, northern Iraq, the Gulf Coast of Saudi Arabia, and in
| Bahrain and Qatar, while the Baku oilfields in Soviet Azerbaijan
| are shown in the far upper area.
|
| > Of the numerous marginal inset maps the most important
| illustrate the ultra-productive Dhahran-Damman area of Saudi
| Arabia, with the great Ghawar Field, and the nearby petroleum
| operations in Qatar and Bahrain.
|
| > The creator of the map, Brian Orchard Lisle (1915-2004), is an
| enigmatic figure, described in A History of the Twentieth Century
| in 100 Maps as "an English-born Second World War pilot and later
| kayaking champion". In fact, he was born in New York to English
| parents, his father being "an internationally known journalist in
| the petroleum and marine industry" and publisher of International
| Oilman (obituary in The Monitor, 2 December 1959). Brian Lisle
| joined the staff of World Petroleum in 1934, becoming assistant
| editor in 1936. In the war he served in the USAAF, rising to the
| rank of first lieutenant. He is buried in Dallas-Fort Worth
| National Cemetery. His enduring legacy is the series of
| impressive oil maps issued under the aegis of Oil Forum: the
| Caribbean (1952), Northern and Middle Africa (1961), Australasia
| (1962), and the Far East (1963)."
|
| 0:
| https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~3...
| bgwalter wrote:
| The "AI" slop description of the map mentions:
|
| _Heavy lines traverse the map, notably from Iraq (Kirkuk) to the
| Mediterranean (Tripoli, Haifa) ..._
|
| I can see the pipeline from Kirkuk to Tripoli on the map, but the
| pipeline from Kirkuk to Haifa is hallucinated and not on the map.
| Or perhaps the description is stolen from elsewhere rather than
| based on the map itself.
| davidu wrote:
| It's not AI slop, it's probably not even AI. You simply are
| unable to parse the description, or the map, or both.
| bgwalter wrote:
| _Here's a breakdown of the networks present, what they mean,
| and how they relate to the map's context ..._
|
| The first red flags.
|
| _Conclusion
|
| The map is a diagram of networks--pipelines, oilfields,
| terminals, company concessions, and shipping routes--
| depicting the Middle East's oil as a vast, interdependent
| system. These networks are both physical (infrastructure) and
| abstract (ownership, contracts), making the map a powerful
| tool for understanding the strategic importance and
| international entanglement of oil in the mid-20th century. AI
| analysis._
|
| And now the last paragraph literally says "AI analysis".
|
| > It's not AI slop, it's probably not even AI. You simply are
| unable to parse the description, or the map, or both.
|
| Yeah, right.
| Hilift wrote:
| Hard to believe Churchill was one of the early developers of that
| field. Fascinating history.
|
| "In 1913, shortly before World War I, APOC managers negotiated
| with a new customer, Winston Churchill, who was then First Lord
| of the Admiralty. Churchill, as a part of a three-year expansion
| program, sought to modernise Britain's Royal Navy by abandoning
| the use of coal-fired steamships and adopting oil as fuel..."
|
| "Persian popular opposition to the D'Arcy oil concession and
| royalty terms whereby Persia only received 16% of net profits was
| widespread."
|
| "By the end of April 1933, a new agreement was finally forged.
| The concession area was reduced by three-quarters. Persia was
| guaranteed a fixed royalty of four shillings per ton, which
| protected it against fluctuations in oil prices. At the same
| time, it would receive 20 percent of the company's worldwide
| profits that were actually distributed to shareholders above a
| certain minimum sum. In addition, a minimum annual payment of
| PS750,000, irrespective of other developments, was guaranteed."
|
| "Truman and US ambassador to Iran Henry F. Grady opposed
| intervention in Iran but needed Britain's support for the Korean
| War."
|
| "BP was incorporated in London in 1954 as a holding company
| called Iranian Oil Participants Ltd (IOP).[41][42] The founding
| members of IOP included British Petroleum (40%), Gulf Oil (8%),
| Royal Dutch Shell (14%), and Compagnie Francaise des Petroles
| (now TotalEnergies SE, 6%). The four Aramco partners -- Standard
| Oil of California (SoCal, later Chevron), Standard Oil of New
| Jersey (later Exxon), Standard Oil Co. of New York (later Mobil),
| and Texaco - each held an 8% stake in the holding
| company.[41][43] In addition, these companies paid Anglo-Iranian
| about $90 million for their 60 percent share in the consortium,
| and a further $500 million, paid out of a ten cent per barrel
| royalty. The Shah signed the agreement on 29 October 1954, and
| oil flowed from Abadan the next day. Within a few months each of
| the American companies contributed 1 percent to Iricon, a
| consortium made up of nine independent American companies, which
| included Phillips, Richfield, Standard of Ohio, and Ashland."
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Persian_Oil_Company
| rayiner wrote:
| The history of oil development is so poorly known in the Arab
| world. The prevailing view is "the British came in and took our
| oil." But everyone overlooks that the Arab countries had never
| developed the mechanical technology to really extract it except
| the portion that came near the surface.
| Aspos wrote:
| One does not need to develop the tech to own the oil and
| monetize it. Those who developed the tech can be hired.
| rayiner wrote:
| Your options are limited when you have none of the tech
| stack to find the oil, development fields, and extract the
| oil. Nor the capital to buy the equipment and do it all
| yourself.
|
| Theoretically, book authors could "hire" everyone needed to
| turn a popular book into a movie. But in practice they sell
| the rights to develop the property to a studio in return
| for a cut of the profits.
| pazimzadeh wrote:
| Finding the oil fields was often easy. The soil was oily
| to the touch. The Arabs were using the oil for lamps for
| a while (think Aladdin's lamp).
| AftHurrahWinch wrote:
| Aladdin's lamp would have been an olive-oil lamp.
| Flammable vapor lamps are comparatively modern.
|
| Before the Renaissance, rock-oil/petroleum was used
| mostly for waterproofing as tar, with a few other
| medicinal and military uses.
| pazimzadeh wrote:
| Highly doubt it was olive oil. But naphta was used as
| wicks for lanterns and oil and natural gas were burned
| thousands of years ago.
|
| The real point is not what the oil was used for, but that
| the oil fields were not particularly hard to find.
|
| From Alexander the Great to Al Masudi, there are plenty
| of records of oil pools and puddles throughout Persia and
| Arabia
|
| https://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/199505/land.of.the.
| nap...
|
| https://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/islmoil1.html
| rayiner wrote:
| The British company that first found oil in Iran nearly
| ran out of money before finding it. In the middle east
| some oil comes to the surface, and in fact the Muslim
| world invented distillation in the middle ages. But
| finding sources to support a commercial oil field is
| another matter.
| Aspos wrote:
| There is a difference in the way it went for Saudis and
| Iranians. Saudis, not having the tech, capital, knowledge
| at the time, still retained ownership. Iranians did not.
| Saudis had enough bargaining power (and balls), Iranian
| Shakh agreed to exploitative concessions.
|
| Those who had the tech, capital and expertise in the end
| just lined up in front of Saudis to be hired.
| kimixa wrote:
| It also requires significant capital investment on top of
| whatever it takes to hire them. The equipment isn't cheap,
| and the entire stack of knowledge you need to hire in
| spiders out significantly, and with the lack of experience
| likely would take a long time to truly fill all the
| knowledge gaps. It may not be obvious what you're lacking
| until you start hitting walls.
|
| Bootstrapping via external investors experienced in the
| sector is way faster, but comes with costs, as shown in the
| deals here. But that's true in every market.
| IncreasePosts wrote:
| That's essentially what happened. Good luck negotiating
| when it is well known that if you don't get a deal, you'll
| get $0. Whereas those with oil expertise can easily go to
| other potentially productive oil fields.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Back then they wouldn't have had lateral drilling
| abilities. Otherwise, they'd just sit in their space
| taking your oil before you even knew you had oil
| boringg wrote:
| They didn't have anything - not just the mechanical
| technology, the talent, the market, the capital,
| infrastructure or the use case.
| hamonrye wrote:
| Crude oil was developed as therapy to treat arthiritic along
| the Caspian sea.
| oa335 wrote:
| > The history of oil development is so poorly known in the
| Arab world.
|
| Comment you replied to is talking about the history of the
| Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Iran is outside the Arab world.
| dredmorbius wrote:
| [delayed]
| BeetleB wrote:
| > The prevailing view is "the British came in and took our
| oil."
|
| No one thinks that in Saudi Arabia, because it is not
| remotely true.
| dredmorbius wrote:
| No, in Saudia Arabia, it was the Americans.
|
| Editing/Updating to note: yes, the British were involved,
| somewhat, but for various reasons the UK had a far greater
| influence in Persia, and the US in Saudi Arabia,
| particularly following the Great Bitter Lake meeting
| between Kind Saud and FDR, very shortly before the latter's
| death, during WWII.
|
| <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_oil_industry_
| in...>
|
| (Also covered in _The Prize_ which is mentioned by myself
| and others elsewhere in this thread.)
| dredmorbius wrote:
| For anyone interested in learning that history, I cannot
| recommend highly enough Daniel Yergin's book _The Prize_
| (1990), and its companion PBS series of the same title
| (1992).
|
| <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prize:_The_Epic_Quest_for_
| ...>
|
| That recommendation comes despite the fact that Yergin is an
| unapologetic booster of the petroleum industry. The simple
| fact is that he's written an exquisitely researched and
| detailed history of oil in the 19th and 20th centuries, and
| the tremendous changes it produced. This includes ample
| coverage of oil development throughout the Middle-East and
| North Africa (and of course, elsewhere).
| rayiner wrote:
| Thanks!
| cyberax wrote:
| Another interesting tidbit: https://russia-
| islworld.ru/en/kultura/karim-hakimov-red-pash...
|
| In 1930-s there was a chance for Saudi Arabia to become close
| with the USSR. It had diplomatic relations and wanted
| assistance from the USSR, in particular in obtaining enough
| fuel.
| trhway wrote:
| fascinating, the time when USSR repressions impressed even
| Saudis (by watching for example Lawrence of Arabia one can
| see that life there was a complete opposite of a cake walk) :
|
| "one year later he was recalled to Moscow where he was
| arrested one year later on the false denunciation. On the
| 10th of January in 1938 Red Pasha was cut short. Repressions
| of <<Red Pasha>> and the follow-up execution made a great
| impression on representatives of the ruling till now dynasty
| of the Saudi Arabia Kingdom - diplomatic relations between
| that country and the USSR were broken off in 1938 after
| Khakimov's withdrawal and they were not resumed till the fall
| of the communist system in the Soviet Union."
| uijl wrote:
| For the ones interested, there's a fascination book on the
| history of oil. The Prize, by Daniel Yergin [1].
|
| [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/169354
| dredmorbius wrote:
| One of the interesting features prominent on this map is the
| TAPline, the Trans-Arabian Pipeline, constructed in 1950 and
| operated, with some interruptions, until 1976.
|
| My understanding is that the TAPLine was amongst the reasons for
| Lebanon's significance in the 1950s and 1960s, as this was the
| transshippment point for Arabian oil headed to Europe (shipped by
| amongst others Aristotle Onasis's oil tankers). The 1967 Six Days
| War say a portion of the pipeline running through the Golan
| Heights fall into Israeli control, though Israel permitted the
| line to continue operating. The pipeline was damaged by
| Palestinian activists in 1969, and eventually ceased operating in
| 1976 with advances in supertankers, political conflicts between
| states over which the line passed, transit fee disagreements, and
| breakdowns.
|
| Along with control over the Suez Canal, the TAPline is an
| instructive lesson in the values and risks of fixed-route
| transports (physical, data, logical) especially under volatile
| political and military climates.
|
| <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Arabian_Pipeline>
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