Middle East Oil Production in WW2
- Michael Emrys
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- Location: USA
Saudi Arabia produced around .75 million barrels of oil per years 1940;1941;1942 and spiked in 1943 to 3 million barrels.
Egypt produced 800,000 barrels of oil in 1940; 1.1 million each year in 1941-1943
Iraq produced 4.5 million barrels in 1940; 3.75 million barrels in 1941; 4.6 million barrels in 1942; 5 million in 1943.
Iran(Persia) produced 8 million barrels in 1940; production averaged 8 million barrels in 1941, lower in first half and higher second half of the year; 1942 Oil production began the year at 10 million barrels on a yearly basis but averaged on a yearly basis 13.5 million barrels. 1943 began the year at 15 milllion barrels on a yearly basis and increased from then.
Regarding refining capacity, the Axis had unused capacity, both in Axis countries and in occupied countries (e.g. Holland, Belgium, France) which had been major prewar oil importers. The problem was getting the refining capacity where it mattered. For example in Iraq there was a pipeline to the Med but most of the Iranian oil went to Abadan and was refined there for used by the British armed forces. Needless to say, the installations would have been destroyed prior to Axis capture.
Then there are other problems, take the northern Iraqi oil fields. To extract and refine the oil, you need electricity. The power station was located near the oil fields, and burned oil. Say the Axis come near the oilfields: the British will sabotage the fields and destroy the power plant. All of a sudden, the Axis get a trickle of oil but if they want military-useful fuel, then they need to ship all the components for a power plant and then most of a refinery all the way to Iraq (or Iran and Basrah). The alternative is ship the raw oil to Europe, and ship it back refined to the Middle East. The Axis didn't have anywhere near the transport capacity to do that.
Egypt produced 800,000 barrels of oil in 1940; 1.1 million each year in 1941-1943
Iraq produced 4.5 million barrels in 1940; 3.75 million barrels in 1941; 4.6 million barrels in 1942; 5 million in 1943.
Iran(Persia) produced 8 million barrels in 1940; production averaged 8 million barrels in 1941, lower in first half and higher second half of the year; 1942 Oil production began the year at 10 million barrels on a yearly basis but averaged on a yearly basis 13.5 million barrels. 1943 began the year at 15 milllion barrels on a yearly basis and increased from then.
Regarding refining capacity, the Axis had unused capacity, both in Axis countries and in occupied countries (e.g. Holland, Belgium, France) which had been major prewar oil importers. The problem was getting the refining capacity where it mattered. For example in Iraq there was a pipeline to the Med but most of the Iranian oil went to Abadan and was refined there for used by the British armed forces. Needless to say, the installations would have been destroyed prior to Axis capture.
Then there are other problems, take the northern Iraqi oil fields. To extract and refine the oil, you need electricity. The power station was located near the oil fields, and burned oil. Say the Axis come near the oilfields: the British will sabotage the fields and destroy the power plant. All of a sudden, the Axis get a trickle of oil but if they want military-useful fuel, then they need to ship all the components for a power plant and then most of a refinery all the way to Iraq (or Iran and Basrah). The alternative is ship the raw oil to Europe, and ship it back refined to the Middle East. The Axis didn't have anywhere near the transport capacity to do that.
Re:
Almost without question Mussolini and Hitler were rolling tanks and sowing mines directly on top of vast oil reservoirs in Lybia for the purpose, in no small measure, of ultimately seizing oilfields in other regions.DrG wrote:Italian crude oil production of 1938 was only 13 t (in 1937: 14 t). During the war it didn't change much. No data are avaible for the few sintetic oil produced from bitumen.JeffreyF wrote:Does anyone know about refinery capacity for the Axis nations? Or Italian and Albanian oil production?
Albanian production in 1938 was 126,820 t.
Were even half the resources and manpower devoted to military conquest placed more shrewdly in say, oil exploration, drilling, and refining capability, events may have played out far differently. Indeed, a large motivation for prosecuting the war itself would be removed.
Re: Re:
They weren't operating on top of Libya oil, that was far to the south and deep in the earth. It would have been uneconomical to exploit with WW2 technology and very expensive to build up the necessary infrastructure to bring it to the ports to export:mezsat2 wrote:Almost without question Mussolini and Hitler were rolling tanks and sowing mines directly on top of vast oil reservoirs in Lybia for the purpose, in no small measure, of ultimately seizing oilfields in other regions.DrG wrote:Italian crude oil production of 1938 was only 13 t (in 1937: 14 t). During the war it didn't change much. No data are avaible for the few sintetic oil produced from bitumen.JeffreyF wrote:Does anyone know about refinery capacity for the Axis nations? Or Italian and Albanian oil production?
Albanian production in 1938 was 126,820 t.
Were even half the resources and manpower devoted to military conquest placed more shrewdly in say, oil exploration, drilling, and refining capability, events may have played out far differently. Indeed, a large motivation for prosecuting the war itself would be removed.
Re: Middle East Oil Production in WW2
Certainly, the fields were south of military operations per this map. To say they were "far", especially in light of the distance to the fields Hitler coveted, is inaccurate.
As for expense, although I won't claim expertise in petroleum engineering, it's hard to see how fielding a large panzerarmee for the conquest of completely wrecked fields and infrastructure over a thousand miles away in the Caucasus could be more economical. Perhaps it simply wasn't technologically possible to develop such resources at that time, regardless of expense (like putting a man on the moon in 1940). I don't know.
As for expense, although I won't claim expertise in petroleum engineering, it's hard to see how fielding a large panzerarmee for the conquest of completely wrecked fields and infrastructure over a thousand miles away in the Caucasus could be more economical. Perhaps it simply wasn't technologically possible to develop such resources at that time, regardless of expense (like putting a man on the moon in 1940). I don't know.
Re: Middle East Oil Production in WW2
Well, it seems none of Libia's oilfields were discovered before 1950's.
Drilling before 1940 came up empty mostly because of inadequate geological surveys and lack of proper equipment.
Drilling before 1940 came up empty mostly because of inadequate geological surveys and lack of proper equipment.
Re: Middle East Oil Production in WW2
Far in terms of being in desolate wastelands with no existing infrastructure to get equipment to them, draw out the oil, or ship it back to the coast.mezsat2 wrote:Certainly, the fields were south of military operations per this map. To say they were "far", especially in light of the distance to the fields Hitler coveted, is inaccurate.
As for expense, although I won't claim expertise in petroleum engineering, it's hard to see how fielding a large panzerarmee for the conquest of completely wrecked fields and infrastructure over a thousand miles away in the Caucasus could be more economical. Perhaps it simply wasn't technologically possible to develop such resources at that time, regardless of expense (like putting a man on the moon in 1940). I don't know.
Re: Middle East Oil Production in WW2
Hello to all ; a little complement about this............................
Ranking oil Nations as 1940.
Out of the top ten countries in the ranking, five are located in America (two in North America and three in South America) including the 1st and 3rd producer; two (we can say) in Europe, including the 2nd and the 6th and three in Asia. We see the clear disadvantage of the Axis powers on this issue. Only the 6th producer was in the German sphere. Unfortunately for the Axis Libya was not among the producers during the Italian rule; the closest was Egypt.
Source: RML. Vol XXI. Nro 80. March 1941.
Cheers. Raúl M .
Ranking oil Nations as 1940.
Out of the top ten countries in the ranking, five are located in America (two in North America and three in South America) including the 1st and 3rd producer; two (we can say) in Europe, including the 2nd and the 6th and three in Asia. We see the clear disadvantage of the Axis powers on this issue. Only the 6th producer was in the German sphere. Unfortunately for the Axis Libya was not among the producers during the Italian rule; the closest was Egypt.
Source: RML. Vol XXI. Nro 80. March 1941.
Cheers. Raúl M .
Re: Middle East Oil Production in WW2
Looking for a map of the working oil fields in Egypt in 1940-45
Re: Middle East Oil Production in WW2
This site https://egyptoil-gas.com/features/more- ... r-journey/ does not provide a map, but it describes the locations of oil fields in Egypt. During WW2 the most important ones were in Ras Gharib and to a lesser extent in Hurghada, both on the Red Sea (on or near the Gulf of Suez).
Re: Middle East Oil Production in WW2
I am having difficulty finding figures for the production from Bahrain not just oil output but the output from the refineries during the war I keep reading that their output was increased but I don’t see any figures
Re: Middle East Oil Production in WW2
I haven't looked into it, but I don't see it as coincidence that under the Sykes-Picot agreement dividing up the Ottoman Empire after WW1, the British got all the places that had oil, and the French got all the places that had no oil.
The Brits had their eye on the oil even then, before WW1 even started.
So I think the various powers would have been aware of the presence of oil reserves, and their future implications, even if they couldnt do much about drilling for it and pumping it with their 1930s technology.
Iran was already a big producer in the 1930s.
I think the main thing that would have put Hitler off the idea of making a play for Middle East oil would have been its long-term strategic vulnerability, to both the Russians and Brits (who split Iran later in the war), and the necessity of relying on the Italians for controlling access via the Mediterranean.
The Brits had their eye on the oil even then, before WW1 even started.
So I think the various powers would have been aware of the presence of oil reserves, and their future implications, even if they couldnt do much about drilling for it and pumping it with their 1930s technology.
Iran was already a big producer in the 1930s.
I think the main thing that would have put Hitler off the idea of making a play for Middle East oil would have been its long-term strategic vulnerability, to both the Russians and Brits (who split Iran later in the war), and the necessity of relying on the Italians for controlling access via the Mediterranean.
Re: Middle East Oil Production in WW2
It is not as simple as you portray. Various British companies had held oil concessions in Persia (Iran) from the earliest years of the 20th Century and were negotiating with the Ottoman govt. for concessions in what is now Iraq when WW1 broke out.
The shareholdings of these companies could be complex with multiple countries and companies involved. So the Turkish Petroleum Company set up pre WW1 was 50% owned by the British Anglo Persian Oil company with various other investors including Deutsche Bank which brought mineral concessions with it. In the various post WW1 Treaties, Germany was stripped of this interest and after oil was discovered in Iraq in the 1920s the shareholdings were restructured with a French company holding 23%.
There was exploration in Syria in the 1930s but it turned up nothing but dry wells. It was the 1950s before oil was discovered there.
Iraq was producing oil before WW2 and there were pipelines across Syria to the Mediterranean coast with a refinery at Haifa IIRC.
So while geology, geography and politics play a part, capitalism also plays a large part with oil companies from Britain, the US, Netherlands and France all wanting a slice of the action and everyone prepared to do deals to make money from oil. So who owns what amongst all of this becomes a tangled web.
The shareholdings of these companies could be complex with multiple countries and companies involved. So the Turkish Petroleum Company set up pre WW1 was 50% owned by the British Anglo Persian Oil company with various other investors including Deutsche Bank which brought mineral concessions with it. In the various post WW1 Treaties, Germany was stripped of this interest and after oil was discovered in Iraq in the 1920s the shareholdings were restructured with a French company holding 23%.
There was exploration in Syria in the 1930s but it turned up nothing but dry wells. It was the 1950s before oil was discovered there.
Iraq was producing oil before WW2 and there were pipelines across Syria to the Mediterranean coast with a refinery at Haifa IIRC.
So while geology, geography and politics play a part, capitalism also plays a large part with oil companies from Britain, the US, Netherlands and France all wanting a slice of the action and everyone prepared to do deals to make money from oil. So who owns what amongst all of this becomes a tangled web.
Re: Middle East Oil Production in WW2
Things never are!
Thanks for all the background detail, which I didn't know -- but this basically all goes to support my conjecture that the various parties were all aware of the significance of the region at the time, even if they lacked the wherewithal to get the oil out, and actual production in 1939 was of minimal strategic importance in world terms.
The main question for me is why the Germans made no attempt to take the Middle East, despite a long-standing interest in the area's oil -- witness the Baghdad Railway and the Turkish alliance in WWI.
I'm sure the idea must have occurred to Hitler (again) in 1942 when Rommel was bearing down on Alexandria. It seems equally clear the Germans never had any serious plans for this, nor even any ad hoc plans, like they developed for Sea Lion after France's unexpectedly quick collapse.