Your options are limited when you have none of the tech stack to find the oil, development fields, and extract the oil. Nor the capital to buy the equipment and do it all yourself.
Theoretically, book authors could “hire” everyone needed to turn a popular book into a movie. But in practice they sell the rights to develop the property to a studio in return for a cut of the profits.
There is a difference in the way it went for Saudis and Iranians. Saudis, not having the tech, capital, knowledge at the time, still retained ownership. Iranians did not.
Saudis had enough bargaining power (and balls), Iranian Shakh agreed to exploitative concessions.
Those who had the tech, capital and expertise in the end just lined up in front of Saudis to be hired.
The British company that first found oil in Iran nearly ran out of money before finding it. In the middle east some oil comes to the surface, and in fact the Muslim world invented distillation in the middle ages. But finding sources to support a commercial oil field is another matter.
It also requires significant capital investment on top of whatever it takes to hire them. The equipment isn't cheap, and the entire stack of knowledge you need to hire in spiders out significantly, and with the lack of experience likely would take a long time to truly fill all the knowledge gaps. It may not be obvious what you're lacking until you start hitting walls.
Bootstrapping via external investors experienced in the sector is way faster, but comes with costs, as shown in the deals here. But that's true in every market.
That's essentially what happened. Good luck negotiating when it is well known that if you don't get a deal, you'll get $0. Whereas those with oil expertise can easily go to other potentially productive oil fields.
Back then they wouldn't have had lateral drilling abilities. Otherwise, they'd just sit in their space taking your oil before you even knew you had oil
Theoretically, book authors could “hire” everyone needed to turn a popular book into a movie. But in practice they sell the rights to develop the property to a studio in return for a cut of the profits.