The man who built the oil of the Emirates — and whom the Emirates no longer mention

Y. Bensalem — Alger, Algérie — 2026-10-11

In 1969, a man leaves Algiers for Abu Dhabi. He is thirty-one years old. He is an economist, trained at the Sorbonne. He belongs to Sonatrach, the Algerian national company — the one which, five years earlier, brought the first cargo of liquefied natural gas in history into a ship, at Arzew.

His name is Mahmoud Hamra-Krouha.

According to Algerian sources, it was Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, founder of the federation of the Emirates, who asked President Houari Boumediene to lend him a man. And Boumediene sent him.

On 1 July 1971, Sheikh Zayed promulgated law No. 2 of the year 1971, which created the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company — ADNOC — and entrusted it with “all branches of the oil industry”. The information is established by official sources: a document reproduced on an Emirati State domain cites the law and its date, and the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries confirms the creation and the mission.

What happened next is Hamra-Krouha.

1. What one man did

The elements that recur from one source to another, and which must be checked against the documents:

• the negotiation of partnerships with the international companies, at a time when a Gulf State had to learn to deal as an equal with the majors;
• the construction of the Ruwais refinery, which became one of the country's industrial pillars;
• the training of the first Emirati executives — that is, the transmission of the craft, not merely the laying of pipes;
• and the running of ADNOC with broad operational authority, until 1987.

A Pakistani newspaper, Dawn, writes in a column of August 2025:

“The man sent by Sonatrach to head ADNOC was a 31-year-old Sorbonne-trained economist, Dr Mahmoud Hamra Krouha.”

**And Dawn adds that a Financial Times profile described him.** This is our first non-Algerian source — and it cites an international financial newspaper.

He died in France in August 1997, at the age of 59.

2. The photograph

A photograph exists. Two men appear in it: Sheikh Zayed, founder of the Emirates, and Hamra-Krouha. The caption that accompanies it in the Algerian press is this one:

“Hamra Krouha and Sheikh Zayed Ben Sultan Al Nahyane, founder of the federation of the United Arab Emirates.”

Two men, side by side. This photograph does not say who signed what. It establishes that they were there, together, at that moment. That is already a great deal: it makes the story impossible to treat as a legend.

(Credit: © El Watan.)

3. The headlines, as the Algerian press wrote them

We publish them all, including those that do not say the same thing as we do.

Why do we publish this table? Because it is not we who say “an Algerian built the oil industry of the Emirates”. It is written in their newspapers, in Arabic.

And we do not silently choose the most flattering version. Three headlines say “founder”. One says “helped to build”. We keep “built” — El Khabar's word in Arabic — because it states the work, without ruling on the legal act of founding, which we have not been able to establish.

4. The silence of Abu Dhabi

Here is what we did not find, and we prefer to write it.

No Emirati source names him.

We searched: the official portal of Emirati legislation (which blocks automated consultations), institutional documents, anniversary publications. We found the law, the date, ADNOC's mission — we did not find his name.

This silence is not proof that he did nothing. It is an indication of what States choose to tell. A Gulf State does not hold up the fact that its oil industry was structured by a foreigner from a country which, for its part, was nationalising its hydrocarbons and training its engineers.

And there is this phrase, used by an Algerian newspaper:

« جزاء سنمّار… أو قصة الرجل الذي تناسته الإمارات »

“The price of Sinimmar… or the story of the man the Emirates forgot.”

Sinimmar is the architect of the Arab proverb: he builds the palace, and he is thrown from the top of what he built. This is not an accusation we bring. It is an image an Algerian newspaper chose — and we quote it for what it is.

5. And what it says about Algeria

There is, in this story, one thing that belongs to no one else.

Algeria was the first country in the world to export liquefied natural gas, in 1964. It created the Algerian Institute of Petroleum in 1965. And when a Gulf emirate wanted to build the same thing, it was from Algeria that the man was sought.

This is not an anecdote. It is a measure.

A nation does not count only by what it extracts. It counts by what it knows, and by the number of people who come to learn from it.

6. The departure, and what remained

He ran ADNOC with a master's hand until 1987 — then he left. The circumstances are not established, and it must be said as much.

What the source writes: “forced to resign without notice and in a humiliating manner”, and he is said to have paid the price of the policy of “de-Boumedienisation” pursued from the early 1980s against the cadres of the former team. These are testimonies, not documents. We report them as such.

No tribute, no official recognition. And one fact, that one verifiable: ADNOC's official narrative mentions neither his name nor the Algerian involvement in its founding.

In 1997, he lost his son in an accident. He fell gravely ill, half paralysed, and died in France the same year, at 59.

And today, what he left produces more than four million barrels per day and sustains almost the entire economy of a State. We will add no commentary to that. The figures suffice.

📚 COMPLETE BIBLIOGRAPHY (rule no. 19)

1. Al Masar (magazine, published on the domain of the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority — rta.ae) — reproduction of law No. 2 of 1971: “On 1 July 1971, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan promulgated law No. 2 of the year 1971” — https://www.rta.ae/links/magazine/masar/Al_Masar_118_Arb.pdf

2. OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, official document) — “Abu Dhabi created in 1971 a national company, called Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), to which all branches of the oil industry were entrusted” — https://www.oapecorg.org/media/6b62b15a-314d-4934-ac8d-bace85fe73d3/

3. Dawn (Pakistani daily in English), “Sandy Eldorado”, 7 August 2025 — “The man sent by Sonatrach to head ADNOC was a 31-year-old Sorbonne-trained economist, Dr Mahmoud Hamra Krouha. An FT profile described him…” — https://www.dawn.com/news/1929237/sandy-eldorado

4. El Watan, Chahredine Berriah, “Mahmoud Hamra Krouha : cet Algérien fondateur de la compagnie pétrolière émiratie”, 2 May 2026 — main source of this article: the role of director of planning at Sonatrach, Sheikh Zayed's request to Boumediene, the setting up of ADNOC, the departure of 1987, the death of his son and his own in 1997, ADNOC's current capacities — photograph of Hamra-Krouha and Sheikh Zayed (credit: © El Watan) — https://elwatan.dz/mahmoud-hamra-krouha-cet-algerien-fondateur-de-la-compagnie-petroliere-emiratie/

5. El Khabar (Arabic), « محمود حمرا كروها.. جزائري بنى نفط الإمارات » — https://www.elkhabar.com/nation/

6. El Khabar (French), “L'Algérien qui a contribué à bâtir le pétrole des Émirats” — http://elkhabar.com.dz/fr/nation/mahmoud-hamra-krouha-l-algerien-qui-a-contribue-a-batir-le-petrole-des-emirats-263528

7. Tadamsa News (Arabic), « ماذا تعرف عن الجزائري الذي أسّس أوّل وأكبر شركة نفط في الإمارات ؟ » — https://tadamsanews.dz/

8. Ech-Chaab (Arabic), « أدنوك الإماراتية.. قصة نجاح جزائرية » — http://www.ech-chaab.com/new/2026/05/11/

9. Echaab (Arabic), « يوم طلب الشيخ زايد مساعدة الرئيس بومدين » — https://www.echaab.dz/2026/05/11/

10. Echorouk Online, « جزاء سنمّار… أو قصة الرجل الذي تناسته الإمارات » — https://www.echoroukonline.com/

11. Algerie360, “Comment l'Algérie a aidé les Émirats arabes unis à créer leur compagnie pétrolière ?” — https://www.algerie360.com/comment-lalgerie-a-aide-les-emirats-arabes-unis-a-creer-leur-compagnie-petroliere/

12. Official portal of the legislation of the United Arab Emirates — https://uaelegislation.gov.ae

13. Japan's national oil and gas portal (JOGMEC) — reference document on national oil companies — https://oilgas-info.jogmec.go.jp/

14. American diplomatic cable of 11 July 1979, declassified by WikiLeaks — cited by El Watan, and which we were NOT able to find again: see reservation (7). Lead for verification: a Japanese academic paper mentioning “a cable of the United States Department of State written by the United States embassy in Algeria, published by WikiLeaks” — https://ocu-omu.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/2001575/files/DBb1140105.pdf

14bis. Works and studies to be opened: Histoire secrète du pétrole algérien (full text accessible) — https://archive.org/stream/HistoireSecreteDuPetroleAlgerien/ ; Algerian university thesis (University of Algiers 2) mentioning the designation of an official by President Boumediene in May 1970 — http://ddeposit.univ-alger2.dz/

15. Echorouk Online, « حين صنعت الجزائر إمبراطورية النفط الإماراتية: قصة النكران والجحود » — “When Algeria made the Emirati oil empire: the story of ingratitude” — https://www.echoroukonline.com/

16. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea — table of national oil companies (year of creation, chairmanship), a third-State document — https://www.mofa.go.kr/

⚠️ Published reservations.

(1) The Algerian sources do not all say the same thing: three headlines call him “founder”, one writes “helped to build”. The divergence is published as it is, and we do not keep the most flattering version.

(2) No Emirati source names him. We searched, and we write it.

(3) The dates (1969 · 1973 · 1987) and the functions come from reprints — including an automatic summary — and have not been verified at the primary source. They must be before any republication.

(4) **The Financial Times profile is cited by Dawn, but we have not opened it.**

(5) The photograph is published with its credit (© El Watan). It illustrates the point; it does not prove the role.

(6) The American diplomatic cable of 11 July 1979 cited by El Watan was NOT found by us — neither on WikiLeaks nor in the online archives available. We therefore cite it as a document reported by our source, never as a document we had opened. It must be verified before any republication: it is the key to the whole article.

(7) The circumstances of the 1987 departure (forced resignation, “de-Boumedienisation”) rest on reported testimonies, not on documents.

(8) We qualify no person: we report acts, dates and documents — and we employ neither the word “traitor” nor any other judgment on a man.