My account for this volume ends in December 1955. Even though the discovery of oil in commercial quantities on the Trucial Coast was still several years away there were very significant changes taking place. These events would in due course lead to that discovery and thereafter the rapid transformation of the whole area.

The most significant events for both the Company PD(TC) and the people concerned the delineation of borders. Before the arrival of PD(TC) and the awareness that there could be valuable resources below the desert sand, there was no need for a precise description of the extent of a Ruler's authority. As I have described in Volume 1 the Rulers became well aware of the need to precisely describe the extent of their territories, and they initiated discussions. However they were unable to reach agreement without the intervention of a third party and so the British Government was, at times reluctantly, drawn into the disputes. HMG became the umpire to settle the borders between the individual sheikhdoms, or today emirates, and the agent to finally declare the boundary between Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia after the events at Hamasa on 25 October 1955.

PD(TC) was then released from restrictions which had severely limited the area where they could operate. They were particularly interested in the west of Abu Dhabi still believing that oil would be found in the same zones as further north in the Gulf. These zones, rocks of the same type and age, as the reader has observed, are in Abu Dhabi territory very deep down. The oil-bearing rocks which were later discovered further east are in another zone, higher in the earth. However the oil in that shallower zone is still much deeper underground than the oil in any other Gulf country.

1960 was the year that both ADMA (working offshore) and ADPC (in the desert) could tell the Ruler, Sheikh Shakhbut, that oil had been found in commercial quantities. Although ADMA started to export oil in 1962, and ADPC at the end of 1963 the quantities were relatively small, and the price was in the region of $2 per barrel. It was not until 1973 that revenues increased as the price was set to rise six-fold.