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Commonwealth Oil Refineries

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113-765: Commonwealth Oil Refineries (COR) was an Australian oil company that operated between 1920 and 1952 as a joint venture of the Australian government and the Anglo-Persian Oil Company . The partnership was established in 1920 on the initiative of Australian prime minister Billy Hughes . The board was to consist of seven members, three representing the Commonwealth and four representing the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. The provisional board consisted of: Sir Robert Garran , M. C. Lockyer, and Robert Gibson for

226-580: A secular politician who believed that "outwardly and inwardly, in body and in spirit, Iran must become Europeanized". Taqizadeh was to intimate to the British that the cancellation was simply meant to expedite negotiations and that it would constitute political suicide for Iran to withdraw from negotiations. After the dispute between the two countries was taken up at the Hague, the Czech Foreign Minister who

339-406: A self-governing Crown colony with responsible government . Brisbane was selected as the capital city. On 10 December 1859, a proclamation was read by George Bowen , the first Governor of Queensland , formally establishing Queensland as a separate colony from New South Wales. On 22 May 1860 the first Queensland election was held and Robert Herbert , Bowen's private secretary, was appointed as

452-470: A "Supplemental oil agreement" to appease unrest in the country. The agreement guaranteed royalty payments would not drop below £4 million, reduced the area in which it would be allowed to drill, and promised more Iranians would be trained for administrative positions. The agreement, however, gave Iran neither a "greater voice in company's management", nor the right to audit the company books. In addition, Iranian royalties from oil were not expected to ever drop to

565-490: A Swiss boarding school, decided to use the occasion to attempt to conclude the negotiations. According to Cadman, Teymourtash worked feverishly and diligently to resolve all outstanding issues, but succeeded only in securing an agreement in principle while key figures and lump sum payments were not settled: He came to London, he wined and he dined and he spent day and night in negotiating. Many interviews took place. He married his daughter, he put his boy to school [Harrow], he met

678-584: A force of settlers and native police at Battle Mountain near modern Cloncurry . The subsequent battle of Battle Mountain ended in disaster for the Kalkadoon, who suffered heavy losses. Fighting continued in North Queensland , however, with First Nations raiders attacking sheep and cattle while Native Police mounted heavy retaliatory massacres. Tens of thousands of South Sea Islanders were kidnapped from islands nearby to Australia and sold as slaves to work on

791-557: A great rush to take up the surrounding land in the Darling Downs , Logan and Brisbane Valley and South Burnett onwards from 1840, in many cases leading to widespread fighting and heavy loss of life. The conflict later spread north to the Wide Bay and Burnett River and Hervey Bay region, and at one stage the settlement of Maryborough was virtually under siege. The largest reasonably well-documented massacres in southeast Queensland were

904-657: A large quantity of oil was found at Naft Khana (now Diyala Province ), which was considered a "transferred territory" along the Persia-Iraq border . The Khanaqin Oil Company was registered in London as an APOC subsidiary. During this period, Persian popular opposition to the D'Arcy oil concession and royalty terms whereby Persia only received 16% of net profits was widespread. Since industrial development and planning, as well as other fundamental reforms were predicated on oil revenues,

1017-495: A letter to cabinet cancelling the D'Arcy Agreement. The Iranian government notified APOC that it would cease further negotiations and demanded cancellation of the D'Arcy concession. Rejecting the cancellation, the British government espoused the claim on behalf of APOC and brought the dispute before the Permanent Court of International Justice at the Hague, asserting that it regarded itself "as entitled to take all such measures as

1130-470: A more equitable share of the profits of the company, an issue that did not escape Teymourtash's attention was that the flow of transactions between APOC and its various subsidiaries deprived Iran of gaining an accurate and reliable appreciation of APOC's full profits. As such, he demanded that the company register itself in Tehran as well as London, and the exclusive rights of transportation of the oil be returned to

1243-457: A new customer, Winston Churchill , who was then First Lord of the Admiralty . Churchill, as a part of a three-year expansion program, sought to modernise Britain's Royal Navy by abandoning the use of coal-fired steamships and adopting oil as fuel for its ships instead. Although Britain had large reserves of coal, oil had the advantage of greater energy density, allowing a longer steaming range for

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1356-687: A paid consultant to lobby the British government to allow APOC to have exclusive rights to Persian oil resources, which were subsequently granted. In 1925, TPC received concession in the Mesopotamian oil resources from the Iraqi government under British mandate. TPC finally struck oil in Iraq on 14 October 1927. In 1928, the APOC's shareholding in TPC, which by now was named Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), would be reduced to 23.75%; as

1469-630: A population of half a million people. Since then, Queensland has remained a federated state within Australia, and its population has significantly grown. In 1905 women voted in state elections for the first time. The state's first university, the University of Queensland , was established in Brisbane in 1909. In 1911, the first alternative treatments for polio were pioneered in Queensland and remain in use across

1582-533: A precipitous drop in royalties appeared to confirm suspicions of bad faith, and Teymourtash indicated that the parties would have to revisit negotiations. However, Reza Shah was soon to assert his authority by dramatically inserting himself into the negotiations. The monarch attended a meeting of the Council of Ministers in November 1932, and after publicly rebuking Teymourtash for his failure to secure an agreement, dictated

1695-472: A process known as blackbirding or press-ganging, and their employment conditions constituted an allegedly exploitative form of indentured labour. Italian immigrants entered the sugar cane industry from the 1890s. During the 1890s, the six Australian colonies, including Queensland, held a series of referendums which culminated in the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901. During this time, Queensland had

1808-421: A shanty town called Kaghazabad, or Paper City, without running water or electricity, ... In winter the earth flooded and became a flat, perspiring lake. The mud in town was knee-deep, and ... when the rains subsided, clouds of nipping, small-winged flies rose from the stagnant water to fill the nostrils .... Summer was worse. ... The heat was torrid ... sticky and unrelenting—while the wind and sandstorms shipped off

1921-518: A ship for the same bunker capacity. Furthermore, Churchill wanted to free Britain from its reliance on the Standard Oil and Royal Dutch Shell oil companies. In exchange for secure oil supplies for its ships, the British government injected new capital into the company and, in doing so, acquired a controlling interest in APOC. The contract that was set up between the British Government and APOC

2034-448: A telegram telling him that they had run out of money and ordering him to "cease work, dismiss the staff, dismantle anything worth the cost of transporting to the coast for re-shipment, and come home." Reynolds delayed following these orders and in a stroke of luck, struck oil shortly after, on 26 May 1908. However, according to Arnold Wilson , "The service rendered by G.B. Reynolds to the British empire and to British industry and to Persia

2147-492: A total of 42 ships sunk during the war. Queensland Queensland ( locally / ˈ k w iː n z l æ n d / KWEENZ -land , commonly abbreviated as Qld ) is a state in northeastern Australia , and is the second-largest and third-most populous of the Australian states. It is bordered by the Northern Territory , South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south, respectively. To

2260-554: A visit to the United States, after the US embassy in Tehran had accidentally invited him (the invitation was actually meant for Churchill) . There, in discussions with George C. McGhee , Mossadegh surprisingly agreed to a complex settlement, under which Iran would own the refinery in Kermanshah and administer the oilfields. The much larger Abadan Refinery was sold to a non-British company and

2373-477: Is home to the Torres Strait Islander peoples . Torres Strait Islanders are ethnically and culturally distinct from mainland Aboriginal peoples. They have a long history of interaction with both Aboriginal peoples of what is now Australia and the peoples of New Guinea . In February 1606, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon landed near the site of what is now Weipa , on the western shore of Cape York . This

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2486-483: Is impossible. If we reached settlement on Mussadiq's terms, we would jeopardise not only British but also American oil interests throughout the world. We would destroy prospects of the investments of foreign capital in backward countries. We would strike a fatal blow to international law. We have a duty to stay and use force to protect our interest ... We must force the Shah to bring down Mussadiq. In October 1951, Mossadegh paid

2599-602: Is just possible that we shall be able to get away from outright nationalization ... It would certainly be dangerous to offer greater real control of oil operations in Persia. Although something might be done to put more of a Persian facade on the setup, we must not forget that the Persians are not so far wrong when they say that all our proposals are, in fact, merely dressing up the AIOC control in other clothing ... Any real concession on this point

2712-570: The 138th meridian east , and to the southwest by northeastern South Australia . The state's southern border with New South Wales is constituted in the east by the watershed from Point Danger to the Dumaresq River , and the Dumaresq, Macintyre and Barwon rivers. The west of the southern border is defined by the 29th parallel south (including some minor historical encroachments ) until it reaches South Australia. Like much of eastern Australia,

2825-619: The Australian frontier wars of the 19th century, colonists killed tens of thousands of Aboriginal people in Queensland while consolidating their control over the territory. On 6 June 1859 (now commemorated as Queensland Day ), Queen Victoria signed the letters patent to establish the colony of Queensland, separating it from New South Wales and thereby establishing Queensland as a self-governing Crown colony with responsible government . A large part of colonial Queensland's economy relied on blackbirded South Sea Islander slavery. Queensland

2938-512: The Brisbane River . He returned in 1824 and established a penal settlement at what is now Redcliffe . The settlement, initially known as Edenglassie , was then transferred to the current location of the Brisbane city centre . Edmund Lockyer discovered outcrops of coal along the banks of the upper Brisbane River in 1825. In 1839 transportation of convicts was ceased, culminating in the closure of

3051-609: The Gayiri Aboriginal people in response. Frontier violence peaked on the northern mining frontier during the 1870s, most notably in Cook district and on the Palmer and Hodgkinson River goldfields, with heavy loss of Aboriginal lives and several well-known massacres. Raids conducted by the Kalkadoon held settlers out of Western Queensland for ten years until September 1884 when they attacked

3164-656: The Great Dividing Range runs roughly parallel with, and inland from, the coast, and areas west of the range are more arid than the humid coastal regions. The Great Barrier Reef , which is the world's largest coral reef system, runs parallel to the state's Coral Sea coast between the Torres Strait and K'gari (Fraser Island) . Queensland's coastline includes the world's three largest sand islands: K'gari (Fraser Island) , Moreton , and North Stradbroke . The state contains six World Heritage -listed preservation areas:

3277-616: The Iraq Petroleum Company . In 1920, the APOC also acquired a northern oil concession that had been formally granted in 1916 to a former Russian subject, the Georgian Akaki Khoshtaria . To manage this new acquisition, the APOC formed a new subsidiary, the North Persia Oil Company. Persia, however, refused to accept the new company, giving rise to a lingering dispute over the northern Persian oil. In 1923,

3390-619: The Kilcoy and Whiteside poisonings, each of which was said to have taken up to 70 Aboriginal lives by use of a gift of flour laced with strychnine . At the Battle of One Tree Hill in September 1843, Multuggerah and his group of warriors ambushed one group of settlers, routing them and subsequently others in the skirmishes which followed, starting in retaliation for the Kilcoy poisoning. Central Queensland

3503-642: The Kingdom of Great Britain on 22 August 1770 at Possession Island , naming eastern Australia, including Queensland, New South Wales . The Aboriginal population declined significantly after a smallpox epidemic during the late 18th century and massacres by the European settlers. In 1823, John Oxley , a British explorer, sailed north from what is now Sydney to scout possible penal colony sites in Gladstone (then Port Curtis ) and Moreton Bay . At Moreton Bay, he found

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3616-643: The Korean War . The United States believed it was possible to reach a face-saving agreement with Mossadegh, under which actual control and management of the organisation would remain with the AIOC. Truman sent Averell Harriman to Iran to convince Mossadegh of such a scheme. Arriving in Tehran on 15 July 1951, Harriman claimed that the United States accepted nationalization of the concession but insisted on having "a foreign-owned company to act as an agent of NIOC in conducting operations in Iran". Harriman's British counterpart

3729-566: The Lord Privy Seal , Richard Stokes , signaled the UK also favoured such an arrangement. Mossadegh however adamantly opposed the idea, believing it would only "revive the former AIOC in a new form." Mossadegh's opposition caused the British to conclude that he had to go. Officials at the Ministry of Fuel and Power wrote in September 1951: If Dr. Mussadiq [ sic ] resigns or is replaced, it

3842-461: The Melbourne - Geelong railway , adjacent to Kororoit Creek Road. The refinery received its first shipment of crude oil on 12 March 1924, with product coming "on-stream" on 17 May 1924. The refinery had an annual processing capacity of 100,000 tons of crude oil. The refinery was shut down on 6 August 1955, having been eclipsed by much larger refineries built around the country. In the 1930s, the company

3955-537: The Sunshine Coast , Townsville , Cairns , Ipswich , and Toowoomba . 24.2% of the state's population were born overseas . The state has the highest inter-state net migration in Australia. Queensland was first inhabited by Aboriginal Australians , with the Torres Strait Islands inhabited by Torres Strait Islanders . Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon , the first European to land in Australia, explored

4068-594: The Sunshine State for its tropical and sub-tropical climates, Great Barrier Reef , and numerous beaches, tourism is also important to the state's economy. Queensland was one of the largest regions of pre-colonial Aboriginal population in Australia. The Aboriginal occupation of Queensland is thought to predate 50,000 BC, and early migrants are believed to have arrived via boat or land bridge across Torres Strait . Through time, their descendants developed into more than 90 different language and cultural groups. During

4181-460: The Torres Strait to the north, with Boigu Island off the coast of New Guinea representing the northern extreme of its territory. The triangular Cape York Peninsula , which points toward New Guinea, is the northernmost part of the state's mainland. West of the peninsula's tip, northern Queensland is bordered by the Gulf of Carpentaria . To the west, Queensland is bordered by the Northern Territory , at

4294-616: The White Australia policy came into effect, which saw most foreign workers in Australia deported under the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 , which saw the Pacific Islander population of the state decrease rapidly. A public meeting was held in 1851 to consider the proposed separation of Queensland from New South Wales. On 6 June 1859, Queen Victoria signed letters patent to form the separate colony of Queensland as

4407-474: The White Australia policy in 1973 saw the beginning of a wave of immigration from around the world, and most prominently from Asia, which continues to the present. In 1981 the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland's northeast coast, one of the world's largest coral reef systems, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site . In 2003 Queensland adopted maroon as the state's official colour. The announcement

4520-519: The semi-arid and desert climatic regions of its interior . Queensland has a population of over 5.5 million, concentrated along the east coast, particularly in South East Queensland . The capital and largest city in the state is Brisbane , Australia's third-largest city . Ten of Australia's thirty largest cities are located in Queensland, the largest outside Brisbane being the Gold Coast ,

4633-640: The 1933 agreement with Reza Shah, the AIOC promised to give labourers better pay, more chances for advancement, build schools, hospitals, roads and a telephone system. AIOC did not fulfill these promises. In August 1941, the Allied powers Britain and the Soviet Union invaded and occupied Iran in order to secure the oilfields and open a secure supply route to the USSR. The Persian Corridor sent over 4 million tonnes of American Lend-Lease and other materiel alone. Reza Shah

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4746-449: The AIOC reported after-tax profits of £40 million ($ 112 million), but the agreement entitled Iran to just £7 million, 17.5% of profits. Britain was profiting far more off Iranian oil than Iran was. In addition, conditions for Iranian oil workers and their families were poor. The director of Iran's Petroleum Institute wrote: Wages were 50 cents a day. There was no vacation pay, no sick leave, no disability compensation. The workers lived in

4859-634: The Brisbane penal settlement. In 1842 free settlement, which had already commenced, was officially permitted. In 1847, the Port of Maryborough was opened as a wool port. While most early immigrants came from New South Wales, the first free immigrant ship to arrive in Moreton Bay from Europe was the Artemisia , in 1848. Earlier than this immigrant ship was the arrival of the Irish famine orphan girls to Queensland. Devised by

4972-495: The British embassy in October 1952, checking further efforts by the UK government to internally undermine his regime. Britain appealed to US anti-communist sentiment, depicting both Mossadegh and Iran as unstable and likely to fall under communist influence as they continued to weaken. It was alleged that if Iran fell, the "enormous assets" of "Iranian oil production and reserves" would come under communist control, as would "in short order

5085-516: The Chairman of APOC, John Cadman , spanned 1928–32. The overarching argument for revisiting the terms of the D'Arcy Agreement on the Persian side was that its national wealth was being squandered by a concession that was granted in 1901 by a previous non-constitutional government forced to agree to inequitable terms under duress. In order to buttress his position in talks with the British, Teymourtash retained

5198-561: The Commonwealth, and F. H. Bathurst, Professor Payne, T. J. Greenway , and W. J. Windeyer for the oil company. Greenway served as chairman for the first year. In 1922, COR purchased the disused shale oil refinery at Hamilton, New South Wales , that had been operated by British Australian Oil Company , and relocated equipment from there for use in its new refinery in Victoria. In 1924, the company opened Australia's first refinery to process imported crude oil, near Laverton, Victoria , north of

5311-438: The D'Arcy concession became even more apparent from the obvious lack of mourning for Razmara. A raucous protest walkout by newspaper reporters ensued when a visiting American diplomat urged "reason as well as enthusiasm" to deal with the imminent British embargo against Iran. By 1951, Iranian support for nationalisation of the AIOC was intense. Grievances included the small fraction of revenues Iran received. In 1947 for example,

5424-592: The Feisty Colleens, never set foot on Sydney soil, and instead sailed up to Brisbane (then Moreton Bay) on 21 October 1848 on board the Ann Mary . This scheme continued until 1852. In 1857, Queensland's first lighthouse was built at Cape Moreton . The frontier wars fought between European settlers and Aboriginal tribes in Queensland were the bloodiest and most brutal in colonial Australia. Many of these conflicts are now seen as acts of genocide. The wars featured

5537-1013: The Great Barrier Reef along the Coral Sea coast, K'gari (Fraser Island) on the Wide Bay–Burnett region's coastline, the wet tropics in Far North Queensland including the Daintree Rainforest , Lamington National Park in South East Queensland , the Riversleigh fossil sites in North West Queensland , and the Gondwana Rainforests in South East Queensland. The state is divided into several unofficial regions which are commonly used to refer to large areas of

5650-637: The IOP at various stages came to be known as the Supermajors, the " Seven Sisters ", or the "Consortium for Iran" cartel, and dominated the global petroleum industry from the mid-1940s to the 1970s. Until the oil crisis of 1973 , the members of the Seven Sisters controlled around 85% of the world's known oil reserves . All IOP members acknowledged that the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) owned

5763-437: The Iranian government would not be accepted on the world market." The British ratcheted up the pressure on the Iranian government and drew up a detailed plan of an invasion to occupy Abadan, code named "Buccaneer". That plan was ultimately rejected by both Clement Attlee and Winston Churchill . US President Harry S. Truman and US ambassador to Iran Henry F. Grady opposed intervention in Iran but needed Britain's support for

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5876-417: The Iranian government. In fact in the midst of the negotiations in 1930, the Iranian National Consultative Assembly approved a bill whereby foreign companies would be required to pay a 4 percent tax on prospective profits earned in Iran. In the face of British prevarication, Iran decided to demonstrate Iranian misgivings by upping the ante. Apart from finally allowing the press to draft editorials criticizing

5989-450: The Iranian parliament, the Majlis , voted to nationalise the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) and its holdings. In April, Mohammed Mossadegh , leader of the National Front and a champion of nationalisation, was elected prime minister; sparking the Abadan Crisis . Mossadegh broke off negotiations with the AIOC in July 1951, after the AIOC threatened to pull its employees out of Iran, and Britain warned tanker owners that "the receipts from

6102-468: The Native Police between 1859 and 1897. The military force of the Queensland Government in this war was the Native Police , who operated from 1849 to the 1920s. The Native Police was a body of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander troopers that operated under the command of white officers. The Native Police were often recruited forcefully from far-away communities. Conflict spread quickly with free settlement in 1838, with settlement rapidly expanding in

6215-525: The Persian desert. Conditions were extremely harsh: "small pox raged, bandits and warlords ruled, water was all but unavailable, and temperatures often soared past 50°C". After several years of prospecting, D'Arcy's fortune dwindled away and he was forced to sell most of his rights to a Glasgow-based syndicate, the Burmah Oil Company . By 1908, having sunk more than £500,000 into their Persian venture and found no oil, D'Arcy and Burmah decided to abandon exploration in Persia. In early May 1908, they sent Reynolds

6328-429: The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, a change took place in our government, and in the midst of all this maze of activities we reached a tentative agreement on the principles to be included in the new document, leaving certain figures and the lump sum to be settled at a later date. However, while Teymourtash was led to believe that after four years of exhaustive and detailed discussions, he had succeeded in navigating

6441-405: The Shah to replace Mossadegh backfired, and led to riots against the Shah and perceived foreign intervention. After that, Mossadegh returned with even greater prestige. At the same time however, his coalition was weakening, because Britain’s boycott/blockade of Iranian oil exports eliminated a major source of state revenue; many Iranians grew poorer and thus unhappier by the day. Mossadegh expelled

6554-408: The age of sixteen. In total, approximately 15,000 South Sea Islander slaves died while working in Queensland, a figure which does not include those who died in transit or who were killed in the recruitment process. This represents a mortality rate of at least 30%, which is high considering most were only on three year contracts. It is also similar to the estimated 33% death rate of enslaved Africans in

6667-401: The attention of all honourable members present ... nobody left the House, and nobody seemed to dare to move". In 1955, BP developed a refinery at Kwinana, Western Australia Between 1952 and 1959, BP Australia branded its standard-grade petrol as COR, but then dropped the name. Anglo-Persian Oil Company The Anglo-Persian Oil Company ( APOC ; Persian : شرکت نفت ایران و انگلیس )

6780-400: The closure of the state borders. With a total area of 1,729,742 square kilometres (715,309 square miles), Queensland is an expansive state with a highly diverse range of climates and geographical features. If Queensland were an independent nation, it would be the world's 16th largest. Queensland's eastern coastline borders the Coral Sea , an arm of the Pacific Ocean. The state is bordered by

6893-480: The colony's agricultural plantations through a process known as blackbirding . This trade in what were then known as Kanakas was in operation from 1863 to 1908, a period of 45 years. Some 55,000 to 62,500 were brought to Australia, most being recruited or blackbirded from islands in Melanesia , such as the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu ), the Solomon Islands and the islands around New Guinea . The majority of those taken were male and around one quarter were under

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7006-572: The creation of the consortium, during 1954–55, was considered as a feat of skillful diplomacy for the Seven Sisters. Some viewed the move as leading to rising tensions with Iran, since it allowed IOP to divert and hide profits with ease—effectively controlling Iran's share of the profits. Scottish Oils Ltd, established by Anglo-Persian in 1919 by merging five Scottish oil shale companies (Young's Paraffin Light & Mineral Oil Company, Broxburn Oil Company, Pumpherston Shale Oil Company, Oakbank Oil Company and James Ross & Company Philpstoun Oil Works),

7119-464: The desert hot as a blower. The dwellings of Kaghazabad, cobbled from rusted oil drums hammered flat, turned into sweltering ovens. ... In every crevice hung the foul, sulfurous stench of burning oil .... in Kaghazad there was nothing—not a tea shop, not a bath, not a single tree. The tiled reflecting pool and shaded central square that were part of every Iranian town, ... were missing here. The unpaved alleyways were emporiums for rats. Later in March 1951,

7232-404: The duration of the concession was extended from 1961 to 1993." By 1950, Abadan had become the world's largest refinery. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company continued its large Persian operations although it changed its name to the AIOC in 1935. In spite of diversification the AIOC still relied heavily on its Iranian oil fields for three-quarters of its supplies, and controlled all oil in Iran. Under

7345-424: The early 1930s saw rising unemployment amongst merchant navies around the world. However, the BTC undertook a series of strategic mergers, and coupled with the continued support of the Shah of Iran, the APOC succeeded in strengthening its position within the industry. In 1939, the British government chartered the whole fleet of 93 tankers to supply fuel to its armed forces during the Second World War . The fleet lost

7458-678: The east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and the Pacific Ocean ; to the state's north is the Torres Strait , separating the Australian mainland from Papua New Guinea , and the Gulf of Carpentaria to the north-west. With an area of 1,723,030 square kilometres (665,270 sq mi), Queensland is the world's sixth-largest subnational entity ; it is larger than all but 16 countries . Due to its size, Queensland's geographical features and climates are diverse, and include tropical rainforests , rivers , coral reefs , mountain ranges and white sandy beaches in its tropical and sub-tropical coastal regions, as well as deserts and savanna in

7571-411: The expertise of French and Swiss oil experts. Persia demanded a revision of the terms whereby Persia would be granted 25% of APOC's total shares. To counter British objections, Teymourtash would state that "if this had been a new concession, the Persian Government would have insisted not on 25 percent but on a 50–50 basis. Teymourtash also asked for a minimum guaranteed interest of 12.5% on dividends from

7684-407: The first Premier of Queensland . In 1865, the first rail line in the state opened between Ipswich and Grandchester . Queensland's economy expanded rapidly in 1867 after James Nash discovered gold on the Mary River near the town of Gympie , sparking a gold rush and saving the State of Freddy-Mercury-land from near economic collapse. While still significant, they were on a much smaller scale than

7797-414: The first commercial production of oil in Queensland and Australia began at Moonie . During World War II Brisbane became central to the Allied campaign when the AMP Building (now called MacArthur Central ) was used as the South West Pacific headquarters for General Douglas MacArthur , chief of the Allied Pacific forces, until his headquarters were moved to Hollandia in August 1944. In 1942, during

7910-458: The first three years of being taken to America. The trade was legally sanctioned and regulated under Queensland law, and prominent men such as Robert Towns made massive fortunes off of exploitation of slave labour, helping to establish some of the major cities in Queensland today. Towns' agent claimed that blackbirded labourers were "savages who did not know the use of money" and therefore did not deserve cash wages. Following Federation in 1901,

8023-426: The fleet, bore the prefix British . Over the next decade, the demand for oil grew throughout the developed world, and the BTC expanded accordingly. By 1924, the fleet numbered 60 ships, with the 60th being the flagship, 10,762 deadweight tonnes (dwt), British Aviator . She was the BTC’s first diesel engine oil tanker, and at that time the most powerful single-screw motor ship in the world. The economic depression of

8136-422: The gold rushes of Victoria and New South Wales. Immigration to Australia and Queensland, in particular, began in the 1850s to support the state economy. During the period from the 1860s until the early 20th century, many labourers, known at the time as Kanakas , were brought to Queensland from neighbouring Pacific Island nations to work in the state's sugar cane fields. Some of these people had been kidnapped under

8249-615: The government's lack of control over the oil industry served to accentuate the Persian government's misgivings regarding the manner in which APOC conducted its affairs in Persia. Such a pervasive atmosphere of dissatisfaction seemed to suggest that a radical revision of the concession terms would be possible. Moreover, owing to the introduction of reforms that improved fiscal order in Persia, APOC's past practice of cutting off advances in oil royalties when its demands were not met had lost much of its sting. In 1923, Burmah employed Winston Churchill as

8362-467: The highly profitable Mount Morgan Mine in Queensland , Australia. D'Arcy assumed exclusive rights to prospect for oil for 60 years in a vast tract of territory including most of Persia. In exchange the Shah received £20,000 (£2.7 million today), an equal amount in shares of D'Arcy's company, and a promise of 16% of future profits. D'Arcy hired geologist George Bernard Reynolds to do the prospecting in

8475-591: The holding company. In addition, these companies paid Anglo-Iranian about $ 90 million for their 60 percent share in the consortium, and a further $ 500 million, paid out of a ten cent per barrel royalty. The Shah signed the agreement on 29 October 1954, and oil flowed from Abadan the next day. Within a few months each of the American companies contributed 1 percent to Iricon, a consortium made up of nine independent American companies, which included Phillips, Richfield, Standard of Ohio, and Ashland. The founding members of

8588-513: The idea of any similar agreement for AIOC. On 7 March 1951, Prime Minister Haj Ali Razmara was assassinated by the Fada'iyan-e Islam , a Shia terrorist organization that supported nationalization of the AIOC. As Prime Minister, Razmara successfully resisted efforts by the pro-nationalization opposition party, the National Front. The public's discontent over the lack of progress regarding the AIOC and

8701-523: The incoming Conservative government of Winston Churchill would be agreeable to that deal. However, the deal was rejected by the British, who believed Mossadegh's downfall was imminent. Several major oil companies, such as Socony-Vacuum and Shell , assured the Ministry of Fuel and Power that they were also opposed to the agreement. Britain attempted to settle the dispute through the International Court of Justice (ICJ), but Iran contended that

8814-466: The issue lay outside the court's jurisdiction . On 22 July 1952, "the court accepted the Iranian argument that the dispute was between the Iranian government and a foreign corporation, not the British government; since the dispute was not about a treaty or convention with a foreign government, it was subject to Iranian domestic law". As the months went on, the crisis became acute. By mid-1952, an attempt by

8927-424: The last ice age , Queensland's landscape became more arid and largely desolate, making food and other supplies scarce. The people developed the world's first seed-grinding technology. The end of the glacial period brought about a warming climate, making the land more hospitable. It brought high rainfall along the eastern coast, stimulating the growth of the state's tropical rainforests. The Torres Strait Islands

9040-490: The later decades of the 20th century, the humid subtropical climate —regulated by the availability of air conditioning—saw Queensland become a popular destination for migrants from interstate. Since that time, Queensland has continuously seen high levels of migration from the other states and territories of Australia. In 1966, Lyndon B. Johnson became the first U.S. president to visit Queensland. During his visit, he met with Australia prime minister Harold Holt . The end of

9153-452: The most frequent massacres of First Nations people, the three deadliest massacres on white settlers, the most disreputable frontier police force, and the highest number of white victims to frontier violence on record in any Australian colony. Across at least 644 collisions at least 66,680 were killed — with Aboriginal fatalities alone comprising no less than 65,180. Of these deaths, around 24,000 Aboriginal men, women and children were killed by

9266-476: The negotiations on the road to a conclusive end; the latest negotiations in London were to prove nothing more than a cul de sac. Matters came to a head in 1931, when the combined effects of over-abundant oil supplies on the global markets and the economic destabilization of the Great Depression , led to fluctuations which drastically reduced annual payments accruing to Iran to a fifth of what it had received in

9379-583: The oil and facilities in Iran, and IOP's role was to operate and manage them on behalf of NIOC. To facilitate that, IOP established two operating entities incorporated in the Netherlands, and both were delegated to NIOC. Similar to the Saudi-Aramco "50/50" agreement of 1950 , the consortium agreed to share profits on a 50–50 basis with Iran, "but not to open its books to Iranian auditors or to allow Iranians onto its board of directors." The negotiations leading to

9492-399: The only Australian state with a unicameral parliament . In 1935 cane toads were deliberately introduced to Queensland from Hawaii in an unsuccessful attempt to reduce the number of French's cane and greyback cane beetles that were destroying the roots of sugar cane plants, which are integral to Queensland's economy. The toads have remained an environmental pest since that time. In 1962,

9605-670: The other areas of the Middle East". The anti-Mossadegh plan was orchestrated by the CIA under the code-name ' Operation Ajax ', and by SIS (MI6) as 'Operation Boot'. The CIA utilized information obtain from British intelligence and bribed politicians, soldiers, mobsters, and journalists to destabilize the country and consolidate opposition to Mosaddegh. The Shah re-asserted his position and forcefully removed Mosaddegh from office. General Fazlollah Zahedi led tanks to Mosaddegh's residence and arrested him for treason. On 21 December 1953, Mosaddegh

9718-449: The previous year. In that year APOC informed the Iranian government that its royalties for the year would amount to a mere £366,782 while in the same period the company's income taxes paid to the British government amounted to approximately £1,000,000. Furthermore, while the company's profits declined 36 percent for the year, the revenues paid to the Iranian government pursuant to the company's accounting practices decreased by 76 percent. Such

9831-550: The proceeds given to the AIOC as compensation. Further, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) would sell an annual minimum of 30 million tons of crude oil to the AIOC for the next fifteen years. The board of the NIOC would consist of three Iranians and four foreigners and would conduct most of its transactions using in sterling . Mossadegh prolonged his visit on Washington's urging because the US administration believed that

9944-571: The proposed guarantee of £4 million and the reduced area covered all of the productive oilfields. When the Iranian Prime Minister tried to argue with AIOC head Sir William Fraser , Fraser "dismissed him" and flew back to the UK. In late December 1950, word reached Tehran that the American-owned Arabian American Oil Company had agreed to share profits with Saudis on a 50-50 basis. The UK Foreign Office rejected

10057-519: The result of the changing geopolitics post Ottoman Empire break-up , and the Red Line Agreement . The attempt to revise the terms of the oil concession on a more favourable basis for Persia led to protracted negotiations that took place in Tehran, Lausanne, London and Paris between Abdolhossein Teymourtash , Persia/Iran's Minister of Court 1925–32 and its nominal Minister of Foreign Affairs, and

10170-408: The same time, it would receive 20 percent of the company's worldwide profits that were actually distributed to shareholders above a certain minimum sum. In addition, a minimum annual payment of £750,000, irrespective of other developments, was guaranteed. The royalties for 1931 and 1932 were to be recalculated on the new basis, and the 'Persianization' of the workforce was to be accelerated. Meanwhile,

10283-461: The shares of the company, plus 2s per ton of oil produced. In addition, he specified that the company was to reduce the existing area of the concession. The intent behind reducing the area of the concession was to push APOC operations to the southwest of the country so as to make it possible for Persia to approach and lure other oil companies to develop oilfields on more equitable terms in areas not part of APOC's area of concession. Apart from demanding

10396-500: The situation may demand for the Company's protection." The Permanent Court of International Justice was a tool of the League of Nations which, in turn, was dominated by the victors of World War I. At this point, Hassan Taqizadeh , had been appointed the new Iranian Minister entrusted with the task of assuming responsibility for the oil dossier. In modern political history, Taqizadeh is known as

10509-412: The terms of the D'Arcy concession, a delegation consisting of Reza Shah and other political notables and journalists was dispatched to the vicinity of the oilfields to inaugurate a newly constructed road, with instructions that they refrain from visiting the oil installation in an explicit show of protest. In 1931, Teymourtash who was travelling to Europe to enroll Crown Prince Mohammed Reza Pahlavi at

10622-545: The then British Secretary of State for the Colonies, The Earl Grey Scheme established a special emigration scheme which was designed to resettle destitute girls from the workhouses of Ireland during the Great Famine. The first ship, the "Earl Grey", departed Ireland for a 124-day sail to Sydney. After controversy developed upon their arrival in Australia, a small group of 37 young orphans, sometimes referred to as The Belfast Girls or

10735-428: The war, Brisbane was the site of a violent clash between visiting US military personnel and Australian servicemen and civilians, which resulted in one death and hundreds of injuries. This incident became known colloquially as the Battle of Brisbane . The end of World War II saw a wave of immigration from across Europe, with many more immigrants coming from southern and eastern Europe than in previous decades. In

10848-534: The west coast of the Cape York Peninsula in 1606. In 1770, James Cook claimed the east coast of Australia for the Kingdom of Great Britain . In 1788, Arthur Phillip founded the colony of New South Wales, which included all of what is now Queensland. Queensland was explored in subsequent decades, and the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement was established at Brisbane in 1824 by John Oxley . During

10961-582: The world today. World War I had a major impact on Queensland . Over 58,000 Queenslanders fought in World War I and over 10,000 of them died. Australia's first major airline, Qantas (originally standing for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services"), was founded in Winton in 1920 to serve outback Queensland. In 1922 Queensland abolished the Queensland Legislative Council , becoming

11074-627: Was a British company founded in 1909 following the discovery of a large oil field in Masjed Soleiman , Persia ( Iran ). The British government purchased 51% of the company in 1914, gaining a controlling number of shares, effectively nationalizing the company. It was the first company to extract petroleum from Iran . In 1935 APOC was renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) when Reza Shah formally asked foreign countries to refer to Persia by its endonym Iran . In 1954, it

11187-611: Was a producer of shale oil . Shale oil production in Scotland ceased in the early 1960s but there was an unsuccessful attempt to revive it in 1973. The company was wound up on 15 December 2010. The Scottish Oil Agency Ltd was a distributing and selling organisation of Scottish Oils Ltd. A Scottish Oil Agency rail tanker is preserved at the Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry . The British Tanker Company Limited (BTC)

11300-580: Was among the six colonies which became the founding states of Australia with Federation on 1 January 1901. Since the Bjelke-Petersen era of the late 20th century, Queensland has received a high level of internal migration from the other states and territories of Australia and remains a popular destination for interstate migration. Queensland has the third-largest economy among Australian states, with strengths in mining, agriculture, transportation, international education , insurance, and banking. Nicknamed

11413-468: Was appointed mediator put the matter into abeyance to allow the contending parties to attempt to resolve the dispute. Ironically, Reza Shah who had stood firm in demanding the abolishment of the D'Arcy concession, suddenly acquiesced to British demands, much to the chagrin and disappointment of his Cabinet. A new agreement with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was agreed to after Cadman visited Iran in April 1933 and

11526-484: Was forced to abdicate in favour of his young son who they perceived would be far less able to act against their interests. Following World War II, nationalistic sentiments were on the rise in the Middle East, the most notable example being Iranian nationalism . AIOC and the pro-western Iranian government led by Prime Minister Ali Razmara , initially resisted nationalist pressure to revise AIOC's concession terms still further in Iran's favour. In May 1949, Britain offered

11639-518: Was formed in 1915 , after the Anglo-Persian Oil Company decided to become a fully self-contained operation, directly owning a fleet of tankers for sea transport. On formation, the BTC had an initial budget of $ 144,000 with which to build seven steam-powered tankers. The Company's first tanker was the British Emperor , which was launched in 1916. The names of the first seven ships, and all later additions to

11752-517: Was granted a private audience with the Shah. A new agreement was ratified by the National Consultative Assembly on May 28, 1933, and received Royal assent the following day. According to Daniel Yergin , "By the end of April 1933, a new agreement was finally forged. The concession area was reduced by three-quarters. Persia was guaranteed a fixed royalty of four shillings per ton, which protected it against fluctuations in oil prices. At

11865-688: Was involved in oil search ventures. In 1952, the Coalition government led by Menzies sold the Australian government interest in C.O.R. to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company , which became the British Petroleum Company (BP) in 1954. The last speech in parliament by former PM, Billy Hughes, was an attack on the Menzies government's decision to sell its share in C.O.R, the state-owned enterprise Hughes' government had established over 30 years earlier. According to H.V. Evatt , his speech "seemed at once to grip

11978-570: Was made as a result of an informal tradition to use maroon to represent the state in association with sporting events. After three decades of record population growth, Queensland was impacted by major floods between late 2010 and early 2011 , causing extensive damage and disruption across the state. In 2020 Queensland was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic . Despite a low number and abrupt decline in cases from April 2020 onward, social distancing requirements were implemented from March 2020 including

12091-414: Was never recognized." On 14 April 1909, Burmah Oil created the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) as a subsidiary and also sold shares to the public. Volume production of Persian oil products eventually started in 1913 from a refinery built at Abadan , for its first 50 years the largest oil refinery in the world (see Abadan Refinery ). In 1913, shortly before World War I, APOC managers negotiated with

12204-552: Was particularly hard hit during the 1860s and 1870s, several contemporary writers mention the Skull Hole, Bladensburg, or Mistake Creek massacre on Bladensburg Station near Winton , which in 1901 was said to have taken up to 200 Aboriginal lives. First Nations warriors killed 19 settlers during the Cullin-La-Ringo massacre on 17 October 1861. In the weeks afterwards, police, native police and civilians killed up to 370 members of

12317-541: Was renamed again to The British Petroleum Company , one of the antecedents of the modern BP public limited company . The government of Mohammad Mosaddegh nationalized the company's local infrastructure assets and gave the new company the name National Iranian Oil Company . In 1901, William Knox D'Arcy , a millionaire London socialite, negotiated an oil concession with Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar of Persia . He financed this with capital he had made from his shares in

12430-579: Was sentenced three years' solitary confinement in a military prison, well short of the death sentence requested by prosecutors. He was then kept under house arrest at his Ahmadabad residence, until his death on 5 March 1967. With a pro-Western Shah and the new pro-Western Prime Minister, Fazlollah Zahedi, Iranian oil began flowing again and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which changed its name to British Petroleum (BP) in 1954, tried to return to its old position. However, Iranian public opinion

12543-721: Was so opposed that the new government could not permit it. Under pressure from the United States, BP was forced to accept membership in a consortium of companies which would bring Iranian oil back on the international market. BP was incorporated in London in 1954 as a holding company called Iranian Oil Participants Ltd (IOP). The founding members of IOP included British Petroleum (40%), Gulf Oil (8%), Royal Dutch Shell (14%), and Compagnie Française des Pétroles (now TotalEnergies SE , 6%). The four Aramco partners — Standard Oil of California (SoCal, later Chevron ), Standard Oil of New Jersey (later Exxon ), Standard Oil Co. of New York (later Mobil ), and Texaco – each held an 8% stake in

12656-545: Was the first recorded landing of a European in Australia , and it also marked the first reported contact between Europeans and the Aboriginal people of Australia . The region was also explored by French and Spanish explorers (commanded by Louis Antoine de Bougainville and Luís Vaez de Torres , respectively) before the arrival of Lieutenant James Cook in 1770. Cook claimed the east coast under instruction from King George III of

12769-465: Was to hold for 20 years. The British government also became a de facto hidden power behind the oil company. APOC took a 50% share in a new Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC) organised in 1912 by Calouste Gulbenkian to explore and develop oil resources in the Ottoman Empire . After a hiatus caused by World War I , it reformed and struck an immense gusher at Kirkuk , Iraq in 1927, renaming itself

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