William Knox D'Arcy

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The entrepreneur William Knox D'Arcy (October 11, 1849 - May 1, 1917) was one of the main founders of the oil and petrochemical industry in Persia (Iran).

[edit] Biography

He was born in Newton Abbot, England, the son of a solicitor. He attended Westminster School until 1866 when the family emigrated to Australia, settling in Rockhampton, Queensland. D'Arcy continued his studies and chose to follow law, later joining his father's business. He did well and began to speculate, initially in land. In 1872 he married Elena Birkbeck of Rockhampton.

In 1882 he became a partner, with Walter Russell Hall and Thomas Skarratt Hall, in a syndicate with Thomas, Frederick and Edwin Morgan when they opened a mine on Ironstone Mountain (later renamed Mount Morgan), 24 mi (39 km) south of Rockhampton. There was a significant deposit at Mt Morgan. In October 1886, the syndicate became the Mount Morgan Gold Mining Company, with D'Arcy a director and the largest shareholder. He held 125,000 shares in his own name and 233,000 in trust. At one stage the shares reached £17/1s/- each, making them worth more than £6 million (an amount equivalent to £479 million in present day terms[1]).

In 1889, with a substantial fortune, he and his family moved to England. He bought the Stanmore Hall mansion, Bylaugh Park and a house on Grosvenor Square. His wife Elena died in 1897 and in 1899 he married Nina Boucicault, also of Rockhampton.

In 1900 he agreed to fund a search for oil and minerals in Persia headed by Wolff, Kitabgi and Cotte. Negotiations with the Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar began in 1901 and with the offer of £10,000 for a sixty year concession to explore for oil was secured in May covering 480,000 sq mi (1,243,000 km²). The concession stipulated that William D'Arcy would have the oil rights to the entire country except for five provinces in Northern Iran. In exchange the Iranian government was given 16% of the oil company's annual profits, an agreement that would haunt the Iranians up until the late 20th century. After the D'Arcy concession the British became much more concerned with the stability of Iran because of their reliance on the country's vast oil reserves.[2]

A drilling team under George B. Reynolds was sent to Persia and began to search. In 1903 a company was formed and D'Arcy had to spend over £500,000 to cover the costs. False hopes were raised in 1904 and D'Arcy was forced to find further financial support, with the Burmah Oil Company Ltd. agreeing to put up to £100,000 into the venture in return for much of the stock.

Drilling in southern Persia at Shardin continued until 1907 when the search was switched to Masjed Soleyman (Masjid-I-Sulaiman in Persian مسجد سلیمان) in a place named "Maidan-i-Naftun". Drilling began at one site in January 1908 and at another nearby in March. By April with no success the venture was close to collapse and D'Arcy almost bankrupt, but on May 16 there were encouraging signs and on May 26 at 1,180 feet (360 m) they struck oil.

In April 1909 the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) was founded and D'Arcy was made a director, the company would later become British Petroleum. By 1911 APOC had run a pipeline from the find to a refinery at Abadan. In 1912 the Mount Morgan company was listed in London and D'Arcy was made chairman of that board.

The financial support given by Burmah Oil and the British Admiralty meant that D'Arcy could no longer put his name to the new company despite the best efforts of his wife, and ended up just a shareholder to the company.[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Measuring Worth: UK CPI.
  2. ^ Cleveland, William L. (2004). A History of the Modern Middle East. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, p. 144. ISBN 0813340489. 
  3. ^ Yergin, Daniel (1991). The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power. Pocket Books, p. 148. ISBN 0671799320. 

[edit] External links

Biography Portal
Persondata
NAME D'Arcy, William Knox
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Oil entrepreneur magnate, one of the founders of British Oil
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Newton Abbot, Devon, England
DATE OF DEATH May 1, 1917
PLACE OF DEATH Middlesex, England