Within the red line were eventually to be found all the major oil-producing fields of the Middle East, save for those of Persia and Kuwait. The partners bound themselves not to engage in any oil operations within that vast territory except in cooperation with the other members of the Turkish Petroleum Company. So the self-denying clause of the 1914 Foreign Office Agreement was reborn fourteen years later as the Red Line Agreement. It set the framework for future Middle Eastern oil development. It also became the focus for decades of bitter conflict.
