Iran’s modern history deeply linked with oil industry events

Tuesday, March 6, 2018Iran’s modern history deeply linked with oil industry events

The first meeting of a series of oil history related meetings was held in Tehran.  

 During the meeting, Dr. Majid Tafreshi, a historian, and document researcher delivered a speech announcing Iran’s contemporary history is very closely intertwined with its oil industry developments so that rarely we can do any comprehensive research unless to take into consideration oil industry developments as well.  

According to the Petroleum Museums and Documents Center, he pointed to a number of famous international centers that keep Iran’s oil industry documents in their archives especially those located in Britain.

According to him, Britain National Archive is the most important center in the world with more than four million documents exclusively related to Iran’s oil industry.

نشست دكتر تفرشي

He continued: these documents include reports by Britain’s oil agents, which were known as secret agents of Britain’s embassy and its consulates in Iran and its Royal Navy (Admiralty), now incorporated in the Ministry of Defense, which once acted on behalf of Britain’s espionage organizations.

 “The second most important archive is British Petroleum’s (BP) archive that its doors were closed to historians and those interested in oil history subjects in the past, mainly because it is a private entity and does not offer public services”, he said adding “since 25 years ago, the company, mainly under pressures from Britain’s industrial historian, has transferred its documents to a university named Warwick.

"In 2008, on the occasion of the centennial of oil discovery in Iran, BP displayed a great number of its documents to the public in the form of film and picture.”  the speaker said.  

According to him, Colonial Office archive, which transferred its documents to Britain’s National Library after India independence in 1948, is the third important center holding Iran’s oil industry documents.

“India, the Persian Gulf, and oil are the three issues which have been important in view of Britain’s colonial policies and that is why its documents can contain important revealing stories”, he said.

Expressing regret that not enough attention has been paid to preserving and holding the Iranian oil industry documents at home, he noted: a great part of these documents have either been destroyed or being out of reach; sometimes due to mismanagement whether consciously or unknowingly.  

He emphasized that any research on Iran’s oil industry without access to these international documents and archives will fail to meet expectations and it is just cooperation and interaction with these bodies that can pave the way for recovery and recording Iran’s oil industry history as an important part of Iran’s past.