History of Burmah Oil

I  am having some trouble getting hold of information on the history of the Burmah Oil Company. This story from the January 1980 Maritime Reporter, entitled LNG Virgo Named At General Dynamics doesn't actually appear in the scanned edition of the magazine, which has pages 19 and 20 duplicated. I presume the special Freemason's Edition had special Freemason's pages not available to the rest of us. This story concerns my Great Aunt Molly Wilson née Stuart, [actually Clarkson, but they all seem to be a bunch of fucking crooks] naming an enormous LNG tanker built by General Dynamics:

The Group managing director of Burmah Oil Company Ltd. of England declared recently that tapping reserves of natural gas readily available in many countries "is one of the simplest ways of developing new sources of energy." Speaking at the naming ceremony for the giant liquefied natural gas tanker LNG Virgo, Stanley .1. Wilson said he found it "incredible that we should stand around bewildered at the disappearance of old sources of energy while doing almost nothing to open up new resources that are readily available." Mr. Wilson, whose wife Molly christened the eighth LNG tanker to be built at General Dynamics' Quincy (Mass.) Shipbuilding Division, said the world could open up the new resources "by recreating the necessary will, determination and urgency. . . ." Mr. Wilson told the thousands of shipyard workers and distinguished guests at the ceremony that the tankers built in the yard "can provide the transport" for the new sources of energy. "Ships built in this yard are no longer prototypes. They are the norm." The 936-foot LNG Virgo is scheduled to join seven sisterships which have been delivering liquefied natural gas f r om Indonesia to Japan for more than two years. By the end of 1979, the ships will have made about 177 round trips to Japan, delivering 469 billion cubic feet of natural gas — enough to heat the homes in the greater Boston area for 12 years.

Also participating in the naming ceremony were David S. Lewis, General Dynamics chairman and chief executive officer, P. Takis Veliotis, corporate vice president and general manager of its Electric Boat Division, and Joseph H. Lennox, Quincy Division general manager.

I would also like to learn more about Burmah Shell and Burmah Oil Company operations in India and Pakistan after 1947.

From http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/106618/1/Oil_multinationals_and_governments_in_postcolonial_transition.doc

At independence in 1947, the socio-economic and political context changed significantly for BS and BOC.  Before independence, BS, owned and controlled by BOC, had been an important imperial company and, as such, was in a favoured position in India.   BOC had been established in Glasgow during 1886 and gained concessions to drill for oil in Burmah when the British annexed Upper Burma after the third Anglo-Burmese war. [See the refrence to Guy Horton in this post: UK Members of Parliament Applaud New Ways of Demonstrating ] BOC successfully drilled for oil in its early years and became the only oil company in the British Empire. As such, BOC was of particular importance to the British Government, signing in 1905, an agreement with the British Government to supply fuel oil to the British Admiralty.  This led to BOC being invited to take on the Anglo-Persian oil concession in 1910 and becoming a major shareholder of Anglo-Iranian Oil Company when it was established. BOC started to trade in India in 1902, with India rapidly becoming an important market for BOC for kerosene and other oil products.  In 1905, it concluded a kerosene agreement with Asiatic Petroleum, agreeing to sell its excess production to other oil companies. By 1919, BOC had become an important company in the British economy as indicated by its market capitalisation of £62.8m ($278m) placing it first place on Chandler’s list of Britain’s leading industrial firms of 1919. BOC retained its importance to the British Government, both in its own right and as the leading shareholder in AIOC, in the period up to 1947 due to Britain’s increasing oil needs with two world wars and a movement away from coal to oil in the British economy.  

BOC’s activities in India continued to prosper and in 1919, BOC entered a Kerosene pool agreement in India with other oil companies which was highly advantageous for BOC, but at the expense of other companies such as Shell.  Diversifying further, in 1921, BOC acquired the Assam Oil Company, one of the two producers of any consequence in mainland India, but inefficient as a result of being under-financed and poorly managed. By 1926-27 BOC, together with some smaller indigenous producers, was providing 65 per cent of India’s Kerosene needs, making BOC the largest oil company in India and indicating its importance to both the Indian oil market and the British Empire. At the beginning of 1928, BOC and Shell jointly established the Burmah-Shell Oil Storage and Distributing Company of India (BS) in the Indian sub-continent, initially to deal with oil distribution activities and later adding oil exploration and production to its role.   BS was required to purchase all its oil supplies from its two parent companies, with BOC’s oil having the prior claim, after which Shell could import the balance.  BOC undertook not to market directly in other parts of the world and to consign any surplus oil to Shell. Later the agreement was amended such that Shell shared the supply of oil to BS with the AIOC.  BS also gained concessions to drill for oil from the British Government in India.

In the pre-independence period, oil was very much in the hands of foreign oil companies with BS being the largest. BS was allowed to trade without undue government involvement in trading activities, British staff dominated in key positions and the company was closely linked with the managing agency system that was associated with the British Empire. BS was therefore very much in a favoured position as a British company. Throughout the pre-independence period, British interests were paramount within the British Empire, with easy remittances of monies to the UK and protection against foreign competition for British companies. British capital dominated industry in India with British firms dominating, either directly or through managing agencies and some believed that British policy has been responsible for a decline in indigenous industry. Some Indian family based companies such as the Tata and Birla groups ran successful businesses, for example in iron and steel and textiles.  However, in most cases, what little Indian industry there was, produced low technology, low productivity, low wage and labour intensive goods and was concentrated in only a few selected areas.  There was little production of capital goods, a lack of infrastructure industries, modern banking and insurance.  

See this curious story about a guy from Shell dying on the Cauvery River.

The body of Michael Easton, a 62-year-old senior research scientist for Shell from Holland Park, west London, was discovered today by rescuers after disappearing during an excursion on the Cauvery River, near Bangalore.