To most outsiders in the 1950s, the Buraimi Affair was a passing curiosity, a faraway squabble about territorial rights in a remote corner of southeast Arabia known as the Buraimi Oasis. The British government backed its proteges, Abu Dhabi and Oman, against Saudi Arabia, while the United States government took a mediating role. However, as the Time magazine report suggested, there was another aspect to the dispute: it was rumoured that Buraimi was "floating on a pool of oil." For oil operations, the disputed territory was separated into three parts: Aramco would operate in the southern part, Petroleum Development (Trucial Coast) in the northern part, with a "no go" area in between, which became known unofficially as "No Oil Man's Land."A 15-mile exclusion zone was imposed around the Buraimi Oasis, placing the area out of bounds.
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