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Bahrain: No.2 One-quarter dinar
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First issued 16 October 1965.
Size 140 mm x 60 mm.
Signature Sheikh Khalifah bin Sulman al Khalifah.
Watermark The head of a falcon.
Security thread Solid.
Printer Thomas de la Rue and Company.
Illustration Crest of Bahrain, with a dhow in full sail and two beached dhows.
Back
Illustration Oil rig with an oil refinery in the background The oil industry in Bahrain owes its beginning to a New Zealander named Frank Holmes who, after drilling for artesian water, believed there might be oil beneath Bahrain. On 2 December 1925, Holmes was granted a two-year prospecting concession. After failing to interest British companies, Holmes approached American interests with the ultimate result that Bahrain Petroleum Company Limited (BAPCO), a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Oil, was established exploit what oil might be found. BAPCO was assigned the prospecting concession on 1 August 1930. The first commercial oil well, immediately to the south of Awali, began to flow in 1932 and by 1935 there were sixteen wells producing oil. In 1936 a small refinery was opened on the east of Bahrain, near Sitra Island, and in the following year it was expanded to a capacity of 25,000 barrels a day. This expansion led it to be able to handle more crude oil than Bahrain could handle, so a pipeline was constructed from Dammam in Saudi Arabia to Bahrain to allow Saudi crude to be processed in Bahrain. To export the crude, a new port facility and three mile jetty was built on Sitra Island. Despite the abundance of oil in the Arabian Peninsula, Bahrains oil reserves are quite small. However, Bahrain had the good fortune to be one of the earlier recipients of oil revenues, and has used the revenues to establish other industries in Bahrain and to establish itself as a leading financial centre of the Gulf region.