Oil Supply from the Ottomans to Germany during the war?

[stevenbecker]

Mates,

I notice this question on another site, and some one answered:

"The oil production and consumption of Germany before and in WW1 was almost meaningless and Romania was neutral til 1916 .
Before 1914 the few oil that Germany imported came mostly from Romania, but the war changed this, as Romanian's oil was controlled by Britain and France . It was the same for the Iraqi oil,besides the Ottoman Empire and also Romania on their own could not produce this oil and transport it to Germany .A big part of the Romanian oil installations were destroyed before the arrival of the Germans .
The first oil from occupied Romania arrived in Germany in February 1917, total til November 1918 was 890000 tons .
It is also doubtful that more oil would have benefited Germany as Germany needed less oil than the Allies .The Hochseeflotte used coal, the Royal Navy oil ."

All I could add

"As far as I know Germany with Ottoman help sent units into Persia to destroy/ disrupt British Oil supplies
The British paid a lot of money to the Arab/Persian control British Companies to kept them, the British supplied
Russian Forces also entered Persia to kept the Ottomans/Germans out
I could find no details if any oil was supplied by the Ottomans in Mespotainia to Germany
From what I can see they did not?
But it should be known that British Forces captured Basria early in the war and kept control.
Then again the Ottoman Rail line was not finished from Turkey to Mespot, so the Ottomans had no way to move large quanities of Oil, even if they wanted too"

I was worried that I maybe incorrect, but could not find any thing to disprove my statement

Could you add or help 

S.B

Edited 7 April , 2023 by stevenbecker

[infantry]

There were no oil wells or refineries in the Ottoman Empire. So called Mesopotamia oil was coming from the Iranian Ahwaz oil field under the control of Anglo-Persian company. There were of course known oil fields in Iraq where oil coming to surface naturally. But because there was no refinery crude oil had been used as bitumen. 

So it was impossible for the Germans to import oil from the empire. In fact the Ottomans also depended on oil imports from Romania and Russia (Azerbaijan). The 1918 crisis between the Ottomans and Germans was erupted due to the problem of control of Azeri oil fields.

Romania officially stopped selling oil to the Ottomans but turned a blind eye to smugglers. 

The Ottomans did attack Ahwaz and surrounding area in 1915. Some tribes like Bakhtiari collaborated with the Ottomans. The British had to send a brigade to deal with them. After some reversals, the British repulsed the Ottomans and suppressed the rebellion. 

Cheers

[stevenbecker]

Mate.

Thank you yes, I could find no mention of Oil either neither in Mespot or even Hajaz

Ans other then Sea, there was no way to move it even if they did have fields.

Funny how things changed in twenty years till 1940

S.B

[michaeldr]

See p.2 of The Great War in Palestine: Dr Tawfiq Canaan’s Photographic Album by Dr. Norbert Schwake (https://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/jq-articles/JQ_56-57_The_Great_War_0.pdf)

caption:- "Oil producing facilities at El Maqarin. Source: State Archive Dűsseldorf"

quote from text: "It is a unique picture of the station where German engineers under the command of Lieutenant Rudolf Beyschlag (later professor at the Technical Academy of Berlin) tried to produce shale oil." 

Wiki also gives the following:-  The modern exploitation of Jordanian oil shale began under Ottoman rule prior to and during World War I, when the German Army produced shale oil from the Yarmouk area. The oil shale was processed to operate the Hejaz Railway. It was mined and processed near the Maqarin station along the Haifa spur of the railroad, which partly follows the Yarmouk River valley. In addition to the shale oil production, oil shale was also utilized as a mix with coal to fuel locomotives. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_shale_in_Jordan#History)

This seems to have been a very limited, small scale, operation of local use only

[stevenbecker]

Michael,

Funny this, as I read its hard to do, and with the limited Rail Transport to move it, its a no win resource.

S.B

[michaeldr]

They really had no choice Steve.

The northern coastal region of Anatolia was the main coal field, with the coal being transported to Istanbul by ships on the Black Sea (an alternative road or rail network was not available). This shipping route was constantly threatened and harassed by the Russian navy.
See SOME RUSSIAN ASPECT OF VIEW ON CHANAKKALE WAR by Lütfi Şeyban – Kateryna Zlobina (quoting from: Bolnix, А.G., Sea fights of the First World War: On ocean open spaces)
Besides the Russian fleet periodically made bombardments of Zonguldak and Eregli: 
«After 149 mines at the Black Sea entrance to the Bosphorus, and 488 mines in Dardanelles were laid, it meant that the Germany-Turkish fleet had used all its stock of mines. That’s why it was not possible to lay mine field to protect the coal mining areas in Zonguldak and Eregli. Therefore these places constantly were under attacks by the ships of the Russian fleet which resulted in the interruption of coal deliveries for the war industry in Constantinople, because Turkey had a weak network of highway and railroads» 

Fuel was a huge problem for the Turks in 1914-1918; see
Poor Ottoman Turkish women during World War I : women’s experiences and politics in everyday life, 1914-1923 by Ikbal Elif Mahir Mahir-Metinsoy 
The shortages of fuel, coal and firewood compelled women to seek for alternative lighting and heating methods. Mitat Enç writes in his memoirs how the decrease in the means of lighting in Gaziantep created new burdens for the women of his family. First, the gas oil sold by street hawkers disappeared. Consequently, big lamps were replaced with lampions. The fuel for these lampions as well ran out soon and they were replaced with lamps using olive oil. Lighting these lamps was much more difficult when matches also disappeared from the market. Instead of matchsticks, they started to ignite hemp chips (kenevir çöpü) using the fire from never extinguished braziers. Finally, his grandmother decided to create her own lighting instruments at home during the kitchen’s idle time. She melted sulfur in a frying pan to make homemade matchsticks out of hemp chips and she organized other members of the family to make candles using cotton smeared with grease as candle wicks. Coal shortages was such a problem of housewives that there were even recipes in women’s periodicals such as Türk Kadını (Turkish Woman) for creating coal out of used papers.

The Ottoman rail lines, running through Syria to the Hedjaz, which should have been fuelled by coal, made extensive use of burning wood during the war. In Syria and Palestine, a large industry came into being to supply sawn timber for the railway, with vast forests cut down all across the country.

[domsim]

I worked in Jordan in the 90s around Shaubak and there was a spur of the Hejaz railway that ran to Hisheh-it was there to transport timber cut down in the Hisheh forest area to the main railway-the track bed was converted to a road after ww2

All the best

Dom

Edited 10 April , 2023 by domsim

[Dave1346]

I'm a former employee with the Saudi Aramco Oil Company. Prior to World War 1, oil had been discovered in Iraq which was part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1913, there were three companies vying for drilling rights in Iraq. This included TPC (Turkish Petroleum Corporation) were negotiating with the Ottoman government for drilling rights in Iraq, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now known as British Petroleum), and Standard Oil of New York which later became Mobil. Anglo-Persia was already pumping oil in Persia which wasn't part of the Ottoman Empire. Standard Oil had a distribution network within the Ottoman Empire but was looking for a source of crude oil. 

While representatives of Standard Oil negotiated in Constantinople, other employees who had obtained exploration rights from businessmen in Palestine began an exploration of Palestine which was part of the Ottoman Empire. As a curious footnote of history, while the Americans were camping in Palestine in January of 1914, they met a Brit named TE Lawrence who would later go on to become Lawrence of Arabia. Since the Americans did not want to admit to why there were in Palestine, they passed themselves off as tourists.

At a site called Kurnub, they discovered oil. They subsequently obtained 25 year drilling rights from Constantinople. Standard spent $250,000 building a 30 kilometer long road and building a camp while they waited for their equipment to arrive. In the meanwhile Lawrence told his superiors about the American oil explorers and the the British did their best to block the American effort. When WWI began, the Ottoman government confiscated the American trucks that had just been delivered. The British diverted the company's pipes and drilling equipment to Egypt where they were impounded. 

While the potential for oil existed in Palestine, the war blocked the development of this find. For reasons unknown, the Ottoman Empire chose to not build their own oil wells and refineries despite having known about oil sites in Palestine as well as Iraq.

Here is an article that can provide more information. 

Here is another article about oil development in Iraq. 

[stevenbecker]

While this is correct, we should remember that Ottoman inferstructure was so poor that any movement of the Oil, other then Sea, could not be done to make it workable.

The vast some's of money in the Oil industry, was not being given to the Ottoman Empire, but taken by the British and Yanks.

What little money was taken by the local Arabs and the Govts in Persia, not by the Ottomans

Oil in its crude form, as used in the auto industry (POL- petrols, oils, and lubs), and plastic's, was not developed to any degree, all that would begin till well after the war.

If so then the major rail link from Istanbul out to the Empire, would have been more developed and the Empire been more into its resourses

The Germans had been pushing this for some years before the war, so a line would cross from Mespot to Europe but no luck with the poor man of Europe.

S.B

[Dave1346]

Good point. As I recall, a few  years before WWI, Italian forces occupied Tripoli. The Ottoman Empire did nothing and in the following year, they ceded all of Libya to the Italians. I've often wondered why the Ottomans did this but war costs money and if the Ottomans were having financial problems, it would have been easier for them to let Libya go.

[stevenbecker]

Mate, its one of those what if's of any war.

The Ottomans were more interested in Coal, then oil, and a major part of the Transport resources were used to move it.

When the Russians interfered with this during the war, that cause a major concern.

S.B

[KizmeRD]

The first oil refinery in Turkey didn’t get built until 1930.

MB

[Donald dogan]

In April 1919, the French navy made it to Zonguldak and Eregli to protect the coal mines there. In late August or early September 1919, Captain or a Lieutenant named Bruno left the boat and went to Sivas. Does anyone know about the French Navy boats in Zonguldak and Eregli and its crew? I suppose the French navy was sent to Zonguldak and Eregli had nothing to the with the French Navy was sent to bombard Odesa and Sevastopol. 

[KizmeRD]

Wiki can provide further insight into the circumstances of the time.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Turkish_War
 

MB

[Donald dogan]

Thanks, KizmeRD; however, the wiki has no info on the boats and the crew. What I am interested in is the names of the boats and the crew, specifically Captain Bruno.

[stevenbecker]

Sorry, I also can't find the names of any ships with the French Black Sea Fleet, that took soldiers under General d'Espèrey 

I found units of the French 122nd Div from Constanople were moved during 1919 as d'Espèrey went crazy sending French Troops all over the place 

The French had there Armie de Orient over the Balkans/Bulgaria grabbing what they could.

S.B