<P> Negotiations for an oil concession for al - Hasa province opened at Jeddah in March, 1933 . Twitchell attended with lawyer Lloyd Hamilton on behalf of SOCAL . The Iraq Petroleum Company represented by Stephen Longrigg competed in the bidding but SOCAL was granted the concession on 23 May 1933 . Under the agreement, SOCAL was given "exploration rights to some 930,000 square kilometers of land for 60 years". Soon after the agreement, geologists arrived in al - Hasa and the search for oil was underway . </P> <P> SOCAL set up a subsidiary company, the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC) to develop the oil concession . SOCAL also joined forces with the Texas Oil Company when together they formed CALTEX in 1936 to take advantage of the latter's formidable marketing network in Africa and Asia . </P> <P> When CASOC geologists surveyed the concession area, they identified a promising site and named it Dammam No. 7, after a nearby village . Over the next three years, the drillers were unsuccessful in making a commercial strike, but chief geologist Max Steineke persevered . He urged the team to drill deeper, even when Dammam No. 7 was plagued by cave - ins, stuck drill bits and other problems, before the drillers finally struck oil on 3 March 1938 . This discovery would turn out to be first of many, eventually revealing the largest source of crude oil in the world . For the king, oil revenues became a crucial source of wealth since he no longer had to rely on receipts from pilgrimages to Mecca . This discovery would alter Middle Eastern political relations forever . </P> <P> In 1943, the name of the company in control in Saudi Arabia was changed to Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO). In addition, numerous changes were made to the original concession after the striking of oil . In 1939, the first modification gave the Arabian American Oil Company a greater area to search for oil and extended the concession until 1949, increasing the original deal by six years . In return, ARAMCO agreed to provide the Saudi Arabian government with large amounts of free kerosene and gasoline, and to pay higher payments than originally stipulated . </P>

Who discovered oil in saudi arabia in 1936