Earlier this year, on 4th July, Abu Dhabi marked the 45th anniversary of the day on which it firstbecamean oil exporter. Billions of barrels have been produced and exported since then, from both offshore and onshore, with the resulting revenues having provided the resources from which Government, led by the late HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and, since 2004, by President HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has been able to fund the country’s remarkable programme of development.

The origins of the local oil industry go back much further than the early 1960s, though. Oil had been discovered before the First World War, firstinIraqandthen,by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, the forerunner of today’s BP, in Iran. After the War, attention then turned to the lower Gulf, being led by the Iraq Petroleum Company, IPC, a consortium of oil companies then working in Iraq, including the firmsthathave today become BP, Shell, Total, ExxonMobil and Partex.

With the support of the Ruler of the day, Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan, the firstsurveysonshore Abu Dhabi took place in the mid-1930s, being followed, on 11th January 1939, by the signing of a concession agreement between Sheikh Shakhbut and Petroleum Concessions Limited, PCL, a subsidiary of IPC. This covered the whole of the onshore area of the Emirate and its territorial waters, extending to three miles (4.8 kilometres) offshore.

Exploration onshore commenced in earnest after the Second World War, but a decade of hard work was to follow before a commercially-viable fielddiscoveryonshore,on a structure called Murban, now known as the Bab field.Thiscontinuestobeoperated today by the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations, ADCO, a joint venture between the original IPC shareholders and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, ADNOC.

Meanwhile, in 1949, a decree was issued by Sheikh Shakhbut declaring Abu Dhabi’s sovereignty over all its offshore waters, from the outer part of the three mile limit out to the median line in the middle of the Gulf. It now became possible for a new oil exploration concession to be awarded to cover these deeper waters.

On 9th March 1953, Sheikh Shakhbut signed a concession agreement with the D’Arcy Exploration Company Limited, a subsidiary of BP, covering an offshore area of 30,370 square kilometres.

In May, 1954, D’Arcy Exploration assigned all its rights under the agreement to a new company, Abu Dhabi Marine Areas Limited, commonly known as ADMA. This was a partnership between BP, (two thirds) and Companie Francaise des Petroles, now TOTAL (one third). The Japan Oil Development Company, JODCO, bought into the company by purchasing 45 per cent of BP’s shares in 1972.

After examining several islands, ADMA decided to set up base on the remote island LETTERof Das, lying some 180 kilometres northwest of Abu Dhabi city and well-situated to permit exploration of the concession area.

One of the firsttaskswastobringineverything that was necessary for the establishment of the base camp A tank-landing craft, ‘ADMA One’, was obtained and, in 1955, the firstworkingpartieswere landed.

As work on Das got under way, so too did the firstexplorationactivity.First,in1954,BP undertook a geophysical survey. Once this was completed, the famous French sub-sea explorer, Commander Jacques-Yves Cousteau, was engaged to carry out a gravimetric survey, this being followed by a seismic survey and shallow boring.

Cousteau suggested a possible area for exploration drilling, around 30 km east of Das and 140 km. north-west of Abu Dhabi. A shallow bank known to Abu Dhabi’s pearl-divers as Umm Shaif, but originally named the ‘F’ structure by ADMA, it appeared from the survey work to be a classic anticline, a type of geological structure that produced oil elsewhere in the region.

A contract was awarded to a German company to construct a drilling barge. Named the ‘ADMA Enterprise,’ it was the firstofitstypetobebuiltinEurope,thenbeing towed by sea all the way to the Gulf, a distance of over 11,000 km. It reached Das in late 1957.

Once the rig was assembled, the barge was then towed out and put in position, and, in January 1958, the Umm Shaif-1 exploration well was spudded, with a target depth of 8,755 feet.

The well not only found oil, but did so in substantial quantities. Over the next year, ADMA Enterprise drilled several more appraisal wells on the structure and in 1960, ADMA formally advised Sheikh Shakhbut of its discovery of Abu Dhabi’s firstcommercially-viable oilfield.

By the beginning of July 1962, nine production wells had been completed, as well as the laying of flow-linesfromthewellsto a collection platform and a pipeline to Das Island, where a processing and de-gassing plant and loading facilities had been built. On 4th July, the BP-owned tanker “British Signal” set sail from Das bound for Japan with the firstexportcargoofAbuDhabicrude oil, a total of 253,554 barrels.

Finally the years of effort had come to fruition, and Abu Dhabi joined the exclusive club of world oil producers. Much more, of course, was to follow as Abu Dhabi grew to become one of the world’s top oil producers, building of the efforts of those early pioneers, both expatriates and Abu Dhabians.