In the Heart of the Desert
The Story of an Exploration Geologist
and the Search for Oil in the Middle
East
by Michael Quentin Morton
Hardback: 282 pages, 83 b+w photographs and illustrations,
23 colour
photographs, maps ISBN 978-095522120
The decision of the British Government in
1912 to convert its naval ships from coal to oil accelerated one of the greatest periods of exploration of the twentieth century,
the search for oil in the Middle East. In 1945, after a lull caused by the Second World War, exploration was set to expand
again and twenty-one year old Douglas Michael ("Mike") Morton embarked on an empty troop ship bound for Palestine
to begin his career as a geologist with the Iraq Petroleum Company.
Arriving
in Jerusalem, Mike soon found himself surrounded by the Arab-Jewish conflict which led to the bombing of the King David Hotel.
Then moving to Iraq, Mike and his colleague René Wetzel unravelled the geology of many parts of northern Iraq. Their
field work in the 1940s and 1950s has never been r
epeated and
is the
foundation of our knowledge of Mesozoic outcrops. The results, incorporated in the
Stratigraphic
Lexicon of Iraq
(Centre Nationale de Recherches Scientifique: 1959), continue to be used by
geologists, geophysicists
and students to this day.
During a series of ground-breaking expeditions in southern Arabia between 1947 and 1954,
Mike travelled where the famous Arabian explorer, Wilfred Thesiger, had feared to tread: the mysterious Mahra country. Expedition
leader Major Tony Altounyan was advised by "one very old and expert resident of Aden...to carry, hidden on my person,
a small weapon or a phial of poison for use on myself to end the final agonies of torture!" Mike also visited other parts
of the Aden Protectorates such as Shabwa, Beihan and the Bedouin well at Thamud.
The story moves to Oman, where Mike took part in the first expedition to
open up the interior of the country to oil exploration. It was a venture that was filled with excitement and danger, as well
as valuable scientific work: in 1959, he presented a paper entitled
The Geology of Oman
to the 5th World
Petroleum Congress in New York. In the 1960s, he worked in Qatar, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi and was in charge of geological
operations when the massive Bu Hasa oilfield was discovered.
In 1971, he was
appointed deputy leader of a Royal Geographical Society expedition to one of the remotest parts of Arabia, the Musandam Peninsula.
Finally, in 1984, working for the Hunt Oil Company, he helped to find the first commercial oil in Yemen.
In the Heart of the Desert
describes an extraordinary world and
a rich parade of characters: autonomous sheikhs and their fiercely independent tribes, nomadic bedouins, colourful expatriates
and a group of intrepid geologists driven by an oil company’s search for oil.
The author presents a detailed and thoroughly researched account of his father’s
life which culminates in the story of his own journey to southern Arabia and a poignant meeting of the present with the past.
Reviews
"Mr Morton has created
a remarkable book that boasts more than 100 photographs. It will interest anyone who shares Mike's obvious passion for
the Middle East, particularly the places off the beaten track." Jo Parfitt,
The Telegraph
"This thoroughly researched book is a biography of
Mike Morton, an exploration geologist, written by his son who has used his father's journals, correspondence, notes, sketches
and photographs to give a fascinating account of the early days in the search for oil." Julian Paxton,
The
British-Yemeni Society Journal 2007
"An account of that [the Fahud] expedition, fraught
with both peril and adventure, is detailed in an absorbing new book titled
In the Heart of the Desert
...it provides
fascinating insights into the search for oil in Oman and the wider Middle East region."
Oman Daily Observer
"[
In the Heart of
the Desert
] is well illustrated throughout by Morton’s poems and sketches, together with numerous photographs
of these early expeditions and early concession maps of the region. While the book is primarily aimed at the non-technical
layman, it contains much that anyone interested in the early oil exploration of the Middle East will find fascinating."
American Association of Petroleum Geologists' Bulletin
"Quentin
Morton is to be congratulated on finding a way to describe his father's extraordinary life and to show how he came to
love his work, the countries he worked in and the people of those countries and over all, the desert. [
In the Heart of
the Desert
] is well illustrated with photographs and sketch maps and will enthral anyone with an interest in the countries
it describes... It is highly recommended."
The Journal of the Sultan's
Armed Forces Association
On 26 June 2016,
The National
newspaper of
the UAE published an article about
In the Heart of the Desert
which includes an interview with the author, details
of which can be found here:
'The Gush that Started a Rush'
.
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In the Heart of the Desert
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