A four-part series that reveals how a
secret pact formed a cartel that controls the world's oil.
On August 28, 1928, in the Scottish highlands, began the secret story of oil. Three men had an appointment at Achnacarry Castle - a Dutchman, an American and an Englishman. The Dutchman was Henry Deterding, a man nicknamed the Napoleon of Oil, having exploited a find in Sumatra. He joined forces with a rich ship owner and painted Shell salesman and together the two men founded Royal Dutch Shell. The American was Walter C. Teagle and he represents the Standard Oil Company, founded by John D. Rockefeller at the age of 31 - the future Exxon. Oil wells, transport, refining and distribution of oil - everything is controlled by Standard oil. The Englishman, Sir John Cadman, was the director of the Anglo-Persian oil Company, soon to become BP. On the initiative of a young Winston Churchill, the British government had taken a stake in BP and the Royal Navy switched its fuel from coal to oil. With fuel-hungry ships, planes and tanks, oil became "the blood of every battle". The new automobile industry was developing fast, and the Ford T was selling by the million. The world was thirsty for oil, and companies were waging a merciless contest but the competition was making the market unstable. That August night, the three men decided to stop fighting and to start sharing out the world's oil. Their vision was that production zones, transport costs, sales prices - everything would be agreed and shared. And so began a great cartel, whose purpose was to dominate the world, by controlling its oil. Four others soon joined them, and they came to be known as the Seven Sisters - the biggest oil companies in the world. Throughout the region's modern history, since the discovery of oil, the Seven Sisters have sought to control the balance of power.
They have supported monarchies in Iran
and Saudi Arabia, opposed the creation of OPEC, profiting from the
Iran-Iraq war, leading to the ultimate destruction of Saddam Hussein
and Iraq.
The Seven Sisters were always present,
and almost always came out on top.
Since that notorious meeting at
Achnacarry Castle on August 28, 1928, they have never ceased to plot,
to plan and to scheme.
In the Caucasus, the US and Russia are
vying for control of the region. The great oil game is in full swing.
Whoever controls the Caucasus and its roads, controls the transport
of oil from the Caspian Sea.
Tbilisi, Erevan and Baku - the three capitals of the Caucasus. The oil from Baku in Azerbaijan is a strategic priority for all the major companies. From the fortunes of the Nobel family to the Russian revolution, to World War II, oil from the Caucasus and the Caspian has played a central role. Lenin fixated on conquering the Azeri capital Baku for its oil, as did Stalin and Hitler. On his birthday in 1941, Adolf Hitler received a chocolate and cream birthday cake, representing a map. He chose the slice with Baku on it. On June 22nd 1941, the armies of the Third Reich invaded Russia. The crucial battle of Stalingrad was the key to the road to the Caucasus and Baku's oil, and would decide the outcome of the war. Stalin told his troops: "Fighting for one's oil is fighting for one's freedom." After World War II, President Nikita Krushchev would build the Soviet empire and its Red Army with revenues from the USSR's new-found oil reserves. Decades later, oil would bring that empire to its knees, when Saudi Arabia and the US would conspire to open up the oil taps, flood the markets, and bring the price of oil down to $13 per barrel. Russian oligarchs would take up the oil mantle, only to be put in their place by their president, Vladimir Putin, who knows that oil is power. The US and Putin's Russia would prop up despots, and exploit regional conflicts to maintain a grip on the oil fields of the Caucasus and the Caspian. But they would not have counted on the rise of a new, strong and hungry China, with an almost limitless appetite for oil and energy. Today, the US, Russia and China contest the control of the former USSR's fossil fuel reserves, and the supply routes. A three-handed match, with the world as spectators, between three ferocious beasts -- The American eagle, the Russian bear, and the Chinese dragon. |
Episode 1: Desert Storms
Episode 2: The Black El Dorado
Episode 3: The Dancing Bear
Episode 4: A Time for Lies
| Khai Dân Trí | Al Jazeera |
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