ABSTRACT
Almost concurrently with the establishment of the air-route, prelimin ary oil concessions were being signed on the Trucial Coast. While the air-route was vital to British imperial communications, a more far-reaching achievement was the channelling of the Coast’s oil into a British-controlled company, thereby laying the foundations for the economic and political future of the shaykhdoms. Owing to the interest in oil, two of the main concerns of British policy on the Coast during the inter-war period were: first, application of the 1922 agreements by which the rulers were bound to submit for British approval any commercial agreement regarding oil; and, second, precise definition of the shaykhdoms’ boundaries. The 1922 agreements and the question of boundaries are central to the history of the exploration of oil on the Coast-a history that is little known but highly relevant today.
