Part 2, Chapter 15 Summary

Frank Holmes, a charming, blustering New Zealander who had worked globally as an engineer, found himself in the British Army's quartermaster corps during World War I. He heard stories of oil seepages while on two postings around the Persian Gulf, and oil became his obsession; after the war, he helped set up the Eastern and General Syndicate to develop business opportunities in the Middle East. British officials in Aden saw in the great promoter a "capacity for mischief," but to coastal Arabs he was "Abu Naft" - the "Father of Oil." Holmes held concessions in al-Hasa and in the Neutral Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and in 1925, added a third in Bahrain. APOC did not want anyone operating within its "sphere of influence," even though it was convinced that no oil would be found in Arabia. In 1926, the financially strapped...