Two stamps of the same design were issued by Kuwait in June 1966 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the first shipment of crude oil. The design shows the late Sheikh Ahmad about to turn the silver wheel operating the oil-valve on June 30, 1946, to begin loading the tanker British Fusilier, owned by what was then the British Tanker Co. Ltd. but is now the BP Tanker Co. Ltd. The oil was destined for discharge at Grangemouth.
The British Fusilier was built by Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd. in 1923 and was a tanker of 6,943 gross tons on dimensions 440 ft. by 57 ft. by 33.7 ft. She was a single-screw vessel, propelled by two double reduction geared steam turbines and had three single-ended boilers fitted with superheaters. She was in service for 30 years, until broken up in 1953. The stamp design is the work of Ramzi Kayello, a staff artist of the Kuwait Oil Company, and I am sure he must have been deeply disappointed to find that the stamp printers have left the black off his original design for the lower part of the tanker's funnel.
SG324/5 Sea Breezes 12/66