AIOC Documents Discovered

Documents belonging to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), which is today known as National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), have been discovered at the depot of the Abadan Apprentice Museum.

The documents are from the annual ledger of AIOC, dating back to the 1946-1950 period.

The documents are about "specifications of manufacture".

Amin Zadeh Darvish, director of the Abadan Apprentice Museum, said a review of 500-page documents, now half a century old, showed that the title did not match the text of documents because the text contained reports of oil treatment and the technical specifications of production at the Abadan oil refinery.

Explaining about the differences, he said: "It's not yet clear for us why the title and the content are different. Is it simply a mistake or have the British taken important documents out of Iran in the years leading to the nationalization of petroleum industry? We don’t know."

The black cover of the booklet containing daily reports of oiling and greasing at different sections of the Abadan oil refinery was made in a factory in London. There are references to the Abadan and Kermanshah refineries as well as to Mashur Port, which is today known as Mahshahr Port.

There is also a log of BP, former British Petroleum, and information dating from 1950.

Zadeh Darvish said the booklet was accidentally transferred to the depot, adding that many documents were transferred to other places during the Iraqi invasion of Iran and fear for their loss at the Abadan oil refinery.