A Secondment

Abstract

The technicalities of the oil business made it desirable that Shell should have one of their own men seconded to AB’s office in Aden — all the more so in view of the organisational developments that were shortly to come. In 1928 Shell and Anglo-Persian agreed to merge their marketing. A new Company — The Consolidated Petroleum Company — was formed to implement the agreement. Management was to be in the hands of Shell; and so Shell’s Cairo Representative became Representative for Consolidated and Besse became Consolidated’s agent. Shell sales and Anglo-Persian sales in his area were integrated under his Aden office. Shell meanwhile decided to establish an ocean depot at Port Sudan, and, when this was completed in 1930, Shell products in their Gazelle containers were shipped from there and no longer from Suez. Anglo-Persian products, in cans marked with a Palm Tree, were shipped from Abadan. It was also about this time that the Standard Oil Company of New York merged with Vacuum Oil to become Socony Vacuum.