Encouraged by these positive results, Socal looked across the water from Bahrain to the great land mass of the Arabian Peninsula. There they saw territory with all the characteristics which had encouraged them to survey Bahrain for oil, but with vastly greater potential.
The concession in Bahrain which Socal had taken up had been held by the ubiquitous Major Frank Holmes. Holmes now persuaded Socal that he offered the best channel through which Socal could reach Ibn Saud. But the failure of Holmes' syndicate, the Eastern and General, to keep to the terms of their original concession (granted by Ibn Saud in 1923) was a serious impediment, and Holmes, more aware than Socal of the problems he faced in Riyadh, postponed his visit to the Kingdom for several months.