The Bahrain Petroleum Company began drilling a little over a year later, in October 1931. And, on May 31, 1932, it hit oil. Petroleum had been discovered on the Arab side of the Gulf. Though only modest in production, the Bahrain discovery was a momentous event, with far wider implications. The established companies were quite shaken by the news. Over the course of a decade, Major Holmes, with his obsession about oil, had become a figure of condescension and ridicule. But now his instincts, and his vision, had been vindicated, at least to some small degree. Was he to be proved right on a much
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