ABSTRACT
Brea tar pits outside Los Angeles, for those who know them. A traveller in 1 9 1 0
reported seeing a small, locally owned ref inery yielding fifty tons of oil daily, o n e
third of which was low-quality product used for anointing camels against t h e
mange, an unlikely beginning for an industry that would soon rule the world. T h e
line of the Baghdad Railway was drawn to run past Qaiyara and, prior to the First
World War, the mineral rights belonged to the Turkish Petroleum Company, i n
which the railway had a share.
