Frank Holmes

Major Frank Holmes also known as "Abu Naft" ("the father of oil") in Arabic was a British geologist. He was born on a farm in New Zealand in 1874. He worked in a South African gold mine and then for two decades, specializing in gold and tin was an itinerant mining engineer all around the world - Australia, Malaya, Mexico, Uruguay, Russia, and Nigeria. During WWI, he was quartermaster in the British Army.

In the period after WWI, oil had been discovered in southern Persia (now Iran). Ibn Saud of Arabia sent a representative to London to persuade the British to drill in Arabia, but there were no takers. British geologists had concluded there was no oil in that part of Arabia. Defeated, the representative was ready to return when he was introduced to Major Holmes, who was intrigued with the possibility of oil in the region. He persuaded the Sheik of Bahrein to give him an oil concession in exchange for drilling drinking wells, which were badly needed by the nation. He then employed five of the best geologists in Europe, and spent years trying to persuade English oil barons to take a chance on a favourable report from one of those geologists. All turned him down. Finally, Holmes asked the British whether they would waive their treaty rights and let him try to interest American capital. They assented, and Holmes went to the Gulf Oil Corporation, headed by Andrew Mellon. The company sent one of its own geologists to Bahrain, who reported two spots which were excellent prospects. However, Gulf called the deal off after Mellon was appointed Ambassador to England, to avoid political complications. Gulf offered to help Holmes negotiate with another company. He tried first to re-interest the English, pointing to the favorable report of the Gulf geologist, but the British insisted there was no oil in Bahrein. Standard Oil purchased Gulf's interest in the concession for $50,000, and went on to hit oil in June 1932. [ "The American Magazine" January 1939, condensed in the U.S. Reader's Digest, April 1939, Pg. 62]

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