Red Line Agreement

Red Line Agreement is the name of an agreement that the partners of the Turkish Petroleum Company ( TPC) joined ( from 1929 Iraq Petroleum Company) on July 31, 1928 in Ostend, Belgium. The goal was the formation of a cartel to common petroleum extraction.

After the Ottoman Empire had lost the First World War, the partners sat apart from the " heritage " of the Ottoman Empire.

It is alleged that Mr. Five Percent, Calouste Gulbenkian had spread a map and marked with a red marker the border of the Ottoman Empire from 1914. It included the present-day Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Oman; Kuwait was spared.

It was agreed at the Red Line Agreement that the undersigned companies were able to go inside that territory by joint oil exploration and production; a sole act should not be possible.