How British Oil Interests and Imperial Strategy Fueled the Forgotten Jebel Akhdar War
In the 1950s, the British military intervened in Oman to crush an elected Imamate, securing oil concessions for a consortium of Western companies. This conflict, largely ignored by the West, transformed the Sultanate into a de facto colony and became a flashpoint for rising Arab anti-colonial sentiment and nationalism.
The Jebel Akhdar War, also known as the Oman War, emerged from a long-standing political divide between the coastal Sultanate of Muscat and the autonomous interior Imamate of Oman. While the Imamate had maintained sovereignty under the 1920 Treaty of Seeb, British interest in the region shifted dramatically following the discovery of oil elsewhere in the Arabian Gulf. By the mid-20th century, the British government and the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC)—a consortium including Shell, Total, ExxonMobil, and BP—viewed the interior’s oil potential as a strategic insurance policy. To gain access, the British opted to back Sultan Said bin Taimur, effectively treating the Imamate as an obstacle to be removed.
Tensions escalated in 1954 when the Sultan, backed by British-funded forces, moved to occupy interior territories near Fahud to facilitate oil prospecting. Despite initial successes, the Sultanate’s forces were routed in 1957 by a well-organized insurgency led by Talib al-Hinai. The rebellion, which saw the destruction of the Muscat and Oman Field Force, forced the British to pivot from covert support to direct military intervention. Between July and December 1958 alone, the Royal Air Force conducted 1,635 raids, dropping over 1,000 tons of bombs on villages and water supplies to break the resistance of the interior tribes.
The final phase of the conflict saw the deployment of British Special Air Service (SAS) troops, who executed a surprise night ascent of the Jebel Akhdar plateau in January 1959. This decisive offensive effectively ended the Imamate’s organized resistance, forcing Imam Ghalib al-Hinai and his commanders into exile. While the United Nations debated the 'Question of Oman' throughout the 1960s, affirming the right to self-determination, the reality on the ground remained under firm British administrative control. The war remains a stark example of how imperial strategic interests, oil concessions, and the suppression of local autonomy converged to reshape the political map of the Middle East.
Source: Jebel Akhdar War
