Topographic map of United Kingdom of Libya = Khariṭah ṭubughrafiyah lil-Mamlakah al-Libiyah al-Muttaḥidah. United States. Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey ; United Kingdom of Libya, Ministries of National Economy, Petroleum Affairs, and Industry. Miscellaneous investigations series (Geological Survey (U.S.), map I-350 B. Interior - Geological Survey, Washington, D.C. 1962. Topographic map of United Kingdom of Libya = Khariṭah ṭubughrafiyah lil-Mamlakah al-Libiyah al-Muttaḥidah

Topographic map of Libya, in Arabic and English. Lambert Conformal Conic projection. "Prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey under the joint sponsorship of the United Kingdom of Libya, Ministries of National Economy, Petroleum Affairs, and Industry and the U.S. Department of State. Compiled 1959-1962 by Gus H. Goudarzi from U. S. Army Map Service." "International boundaries as illustrated are neither final nor binding on the Libyan government." Relief shown by contours, hachures and spot heights. Depths shown by isolines. Bathymetric and hypsographic data in meters. "The first detailed, scientific petroleum map of Libya, a separately issued bilingual (English-Arabic) work published only a few years after the petroleum industry in that country commenced in earnest, drafted by the esteemed engineer Gus Hossein Goudarzi for the U.S. Geological Survey, working in conjunction with the pro-Western Libyan regime of King Idris. In the wake of World War II, Libya, having been liberated from three decades of Italian colonial occupation, went through a period of reorganization and unification before coming under the rule of King Idris (reigned 1951-69), a Senussi religious leader. Libya was one of the poorest nations in the world, and the king courted friendly relations with Western powers in order to attract investment. Idris was especially well disposed towards the United States, as it was viewed as not having a desire to colonize Libya, yet was generous with its economic largesse. Libya was long known to possess geological deposits that could potentially yield hydrocarbons in significant quantities. In passing the 1955 Petroleum Law, Idris invited foreign petroleum companies, especially American firms, to explore the country for oil fields. These endeavours soon bore fruit, as in 1956 the first commercially viable oil formations were discovered, resulting in wildcat wells. This caused Esso, Mobil and Texas Gulf to dedicate major resources to Libya, leading to the discovery of massive, easily exploitable oil deposits in the Sirte Basin, the region in central Libya that still accounts for 90% of the country’s oil production. The United States Geological Survey played a major role in conducting surveys of Middle Eastern and African oil producing countries, especially as such highly specialized work could not then be accomplished by local authorities. Immediately after the first major discoveries of oil were made in 1959, Libya’s Ministries of National Economy, Petroleum Affairs, and Industry invited the U.S. Geological Survey to map the country, with special emphasis upon locating oil deposits, as well as marking wells, pipelines and transportation infrastructure that served the petroleum industry. The U.S. Geological Survey charged Gus Hossien Goudarzi (1918 - 1996) with creating the first proper general oil map of Libya. A highly esteemed Iranian-born American mining engineer, Goudarzi had served as military cartographer with the U.S. Navy and more recently had conducted oil surveys in Saudi Arabia. He oversaw new surveys in Libya, while also collecting and editing the very best existing maps, sorting the ‘wheat from the chaff’. After almost three years of work, at the beginning of the 1962, he completed the manuscript for the present map, which was sent to Washington to be published. The present work is the first detailed, scientifically accurate petroleum map of Libya, being the first issue of Goudarzi’s work. At first glance, the bilingual (English-Arabic) work is a conventional, yet very high quality, topographical map of the entire country, depicting all cities, town and villages; major roads; caravan trials; airports; railways; and areas of vegetation; while relief is shown with contour lines with spot heights. However, as the legend in the lower-left corner shows, the map also labels the division of the country’s petroleum exploration zones (pursuant to the 1955 Petroleum Law); the locations of all oil wells; gas wells; oil fields; and oil pipelines, here all depicted together upon a single map for the very first time. Also included is a glossary translating Arabic and Berber geographical terms into English. The present map was considered vitally useful to oil companies and civil authorities during the great boom in petroleum production in the 1960s that made Libya into the 13th largest oil producer in he world. The country saw massive investment from American and European oil companies that utterly transformed Libya’s state revenues. However, while Idris’s coffers and those of the country’s elite were flush, and while the Libya’s infrastructure saw notable improvement, only a tiny amount of the oil revenue trickled down to the common people, and more worryingly for Idris, to the average soldiers of his military. Popular discontent, in good part due to the grossly unequal distribution of the oil wealth, allowed Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to mount a bloodless coup on September 1, 1969, toppling Idris’s regime. Gaddafi launched an eccentric Socialist dictatorship that he later called the Jamahiriya (“State of the Masses”), which was to be fuelled by the country’s oil revenues. Gaddafi created the National Oil Corporation (NOC) in November 1970, and over the coming years, he progressively nationalized the Libyan oil industry, evicting virtually all foreign interests. The NOC became a virtual monopoly, playing major role in the global petroleum economy, even as Libya came under Western sanctions in 1986, following the Lockerbie Tragedy. In the Early 2000s, Gaddafi attempted to come in from the cold, re-engaging Western powers and inviting them to invest in the Libyan oil industry, overturning the NOC’s near monopoly. However, Gaddafi’s overthrow during the Arab Spring in 2011 plunged Libya into turmoil, and while the country still produces some oil, the enduring civil unrest had destroyed much infrastructure, severely limiting production. As of today, it unclear when, or if, Libya will return to being a major petroleum producer. The present example of the map is of the first issue. A second, updated edition was published in 1971, just as the Western oil companies were being evicted from Libya." (Alexander Johnson).