Oil supply Germany Ottoman Empire

[bltedouard]

hello to all, you know where the germans got their oil , did the ottoman empire supply them with oil via iraq? Thank you for your answers.

[GregSingh]

Romania.

[ljadw]

NOT Romania : the most important source of oil during the war were the synthetic oil plants in Germany .
1940-1944
Production in Germany : some 8 million tons
Synthetic oil (also in Germany ) : 22 million tons
Imports (not only from Romania ) : 11 million tons
Total :41 million tons .

[GregSingh]

Imperial Germany, please.

[ljadw]

The oil production and consumption of Germany before and in WW1 was almost meaningless and Romania was neutral til 1916 .
Before 1914 the few oil that Germany imported came mostly from Romania, but the war changed this, as Romanian's oil was controlled by Britain and France . It was the same for the Iraqi oil,besides the Ottoman Empire and also Romania on their own could not produce this oil and transport it to Germany .A big part of the Romanian oil installations were destroyed before the arrival of the Germans .
The first oil from occupied Romania arrived in Germany in February 1917, total til November 1918 was 890000 tons .
It is also doubtful that more oil would have benefited Germany as Germany needed less oil than the Allies .The Hochseeflotte used coal, the Royal Navy oil .

[stevebecker]

As far as I know Germany with Ottoman help sent units into Persia to destroy/ disrupt British Oil supplies
The British payed a lot of money to the Arab/Persian Companies to kept them, the British supplied
Russian Forces also entered Persia to kept the Ottomans/Germans out
I could find no details if any oil was supplied by the Ottomans in Mespotainia to Germany
From what I can see they did not?
But it should be known that British Forces captured Basria early in the war and kept control.
But again the Rail line was not finished from Turkey to Mespot, so the Ottomans had not way to move large quanities of Oil even if they wanted too
Cheers
S.B

[stevebecker]

Mate,
A Turkish mate sent me this;
There were no oil wells or refineries in the Ottoman Empire. So called Mesopotamia oil was coming from the Iranian Ahwaz oil field under the control of Anglo-Persian company. There were of course known oil fields in Iraq where oil coming to surface naturally. But because there was no refinery crude oil had been used as bitumen.

So it was impossible for the Germans to import oil from the empire. In fact the Ottomans also depended on oil imports from Romania and Russia (Azerbaijan). The 1918 crisis between the Ottomans and Germans was erupted due to the problem of control of Azeri oil fields.

Romania officially stopped selling oil to the Ottomans but turned a blind eye to smugglers.

The Ottomans did attack Ahwaz and surrounding area in 1915. Some tribes like Bakhtiari collaborated with the Ottomans. The British had to send a brigade to deal with them. After some reversals, the British repulsed the Ottomans and suppressed the rebellion.

[stevebecker]

Another mate gave this
See p.2 of The Great War in Palestine: Dr Tawfiq Canaan’s Photographic Album by Dr. Norbert Schwake (https://www.palestine-studies.org/sites ... _War_0.pdf)

image.jpeg.281a734497350b14353495e68bb04397.jpeg

caption:- "Oil producing facilities at El Maqarin. Source: State Archive Dűsseldorf"

quote from text: "It is a unique picture of the station where German engineers under the command of Lieutenant Rudolf Beyschlag (later professor at the Technical Academy of Berlin) tried to produce shale oil."

Wiki also gives the following:- The modern exploitation of Jordanian oil shale began under Ottoman rule prior to and during World War I, when the German Army produced shale oil from the Yarmouk area. The oil shale was processed to operate the Hejaz Railway. It was mined and processed near the Maqarin station along the Haifa spur of the railroad, which partly follows the Yarmouk River valley. In addition to the shale oil production, oil shale was also utilized as a mix with coal to fuel locomotives. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_shale ... an#History)

This seems to have been a very limited, small scale, operation of local use only

I hope there of some use
S.B

[ljadw]

Oil production figures in WW1
Russia 1914 8,8 million tons
1915 9,1 million
1916 8,7 million
1917 8,6 million
1918 3,7 million
US
36,4
38,5
41,2
45,4
48,8
Austria-Hungary
0,9
0.7
0,9
0,9
0,8
British India
1,1
1,2
1,2
1,2
1,2
Romania
1,8
1,6
0,9
0,7
0,1
Mexico
3,9
4,9
6,1
8,3
9,5
Other countries
3,3
3,5
3,8
4,5
4,9
Iran
1918 only :1,385 million or 0,9 million
Sources differ
totals
1914 56,3 million
1915 59,5
1916 62,8
1917 69,7
1918 68,9
Compared to the totals,the Iranian oil production was meaningless .

[bltedouard]

Thank you very much