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Robert Nobel, the son of Alfred Nobel

In the 1880s, an oil boom was brewing in Tsarist Russia, around the Caspian Sea town of Baku. Robert Nobel, the son of Alfred Nobel (originator of Swedens peace prize and the inventor of dynamite), was soon competing with the Parisian Rothschilds for control of Central Asia oil treasure. Their exports threatened Rockefellers near global oil monopoly, especially when Marcus Samuel, future founder of Shell Oil, developed tankers to carry the Rothchilds oil to Europe and Asia. In 1903, Rockefeller made a deal with the Tsarist government to lease and then buy the Baku oil fields. Besides selling vast quantities of American oil to pre-Soviet Russia, Rockefeller also had millions invested there. Thereafter, seeing an inevitable revolution looming on the horizon, Rockefeller also invested in anti-Tzarist forces to protect this branch of his empire. The Soviets did expropriate the Caspian oil fields from the Nobels and Rothschilds. Rockefellers National City Bank also lost assets, thanks to the revolution. Its lawyer, Joseph Proskauer, fought a legal battle to get Rockefellers money back. In 1926, Walter Teagle, the president of Standard Oil of New Jersey, successfully negotiated oil concessions in the Soviet Union.


History of Oil in Iraq
Lord Curzon, the British Foreign Secretary, denied that oil interests influenced policy in Iraq, but the archives show that the British government rushed troops to Mosul in 1918 to gain control of the northern oil fields. Britain and France clashed over Iraq's oil during the Versailles Conference and after, but Britain eventually took the lion's share by turning its military victories into colonial rule. The powerful Iraq Petroleum Company, in which US and French firms held minority positions, acted always in the cartel interests of the Anglo-American companies. To the fury of the Iraqis and the French, it held down production to maximize profits elswhere. The company kept a monopoly of Iraq's oil sector until nationalization in 1972.


Great Power Conflict over Iraqi Oil:
the World War I Era
During World War I (1914-18), strategists for all the major powers increasingly perceived oil as a key military asset, due to the adoption of oil-powered naval ships, new horseless army vehicles such as trucks and tanks, and even military airplanes. Use of oil during the war increased so rapidly that a severe shortage developed in 1917-18.

The strategists also understood that oil would assume a rapidly-growing importance in the civilian economy, making it a vital element in national and imperial economic strength and a source of untold wealth to those who controlled it. Already in the United States, John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil Company, was the world's richest person.

The British government, ruling over the largest colonial empire, already controlled newly-discovered oil in Persia (now Iran) through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Since Britain lacked oil in the home islands, British strategists wanted still more reserves to assure the future needs of their empire. An area of the Ottoman Empire called Mesopotamia (now Iraq), shared the same geology as neighboring Persia, so it appeared especially promising.

Just before war broke out in 1914, British and German companies had negotiated joint participation in the newly-founded Turkish Petroleum Company that held prospecting rights in Mesopotamia. The war ended the Anglo-German oil partnership and it exposed the territories of the German-allied Ottoman Empire to direct British attack.


Middle Eastern Oil: An Historical Perspective and Outlook

The transition from coal to oil had already begun but between Churchill and Fisher the effort was intensified. In the years from 1911 to 1914 the entire British fleet was converted, including new construction. The advantage was not only speed and maneuverability but also freed up men from coal shoveling duty to man battle stations. Churchill appraised the commitment to oil when he stated, "To build any large additional number of oil-burning ships meant basing our naval supremacy upon oil. But oil was not found in appreciable quantities in our islands. If we required it we must carry it by sea in peace or war from distant countries. We had, on the other hand, the finest supply of the best steam coal in the world, safe in our mines under our land. To commit the Navy irrevocably to oil was indeed 'to take arms against a sea of troubles.'"

The question of where to buy the oil seemed simple but the complexity of the solution was soon apparent, and the pressure for a source grew when it was revealed in 1912 that the German navy was converting to oil as well. The two companies in contention were: Royal Dutch/Shell, run by Marcus Samuel who had dreamed of an oil-fueled British fleet, and Anglo-Persian, formerly the Concession Syndicate which had been kept afloat by the Admiralty. The debate whittled down to whether the ownership of Royal Dutch/Shell could be susceptible to German pressure and whether Anglo-Persian was able to deliver at the volume needed by the fleet.

The Anglo-Persian refinery in Abadan was visited and despite flagging production the operation was approved. On June 17, 1914, Churchill introduced a historic measure: The British government would buy 51% of the concern and it would place two directors on the company's board. In addition the fleet was granted a 20 year contract for fuel oil. It was stipulated that the government would have no say in the commercial activities of the company but that remained to be seen. The first quasi-nationalized company takeover had occurred and it was a portent of the future.



The Great War - Victory On A Wave Of Oil

The Great War broke out in 1914 and from the beginning it was a war fought with machines driven by oil. When Paris was facing the threat of the German advance in September of the same year French General Joseph Gallieni ordered a fleet of taxis to ferry troops to the front. The first motorized column was known as the "Taxi Armada" and it was facilitated with the meters running. Later, the British government developed a way to break the stalemate of trench warfare in 1915 when it rolled out the first tank. The tank would prove to be decisive in battles at Somme, Cambrai, and Amiens.

OLJANS HISTORIA - EN HISTORIA OM MAKT - VAPENMAKT - PENNINGMAKT - MEDIAMAKT

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It all started in Titusville, Pennsylvania on August 27, 1859. "Colonel" Edwin L. Drake, the first "wildcatter", struck oil and transformed the northwestern portion of the state into a boomtown. He was prompted by the efforts of George Bissell, the father of the oil industry, to extract "rock oil" from the ground to serve as an illuminant. The process of refining the oil to a usable flammable liquid was perfected by chemist Benjamin Silliman and the final product became known as

"kerosene". Together their efforts turned night into day and extended working hours beyond what was available with natural light. The second Industrial Revolution began with and was aided by oil discovered and produced in the United States.

John D. Rockefeller exploited the new discovery and founded Standard Oil based on a fledgling refinery business in Cleveland, Ohio in 1865. He was instrumental in developing the modern business model of the industry and in fostering advances in technology and trade. Pipelines were built to bypass the high cost of delivering the wooden barrels (formerly whiskey casks) due to the formidable power of the Teamsters Union. Eventually these pipelines linked the Pennsylvania fields to railroads which sent the oil and kerosene to thirsty markets in the industrial northeast.

Rockefeller meticulously bought and linked all the supply and distribution sectors under one roof. This consolidation made Standard a dominant force and allowed Rockefeller the opportunity to develop price cutting methods to destroy his competition and assimilate smaller companies in short order. It would take until 1911 before Standard was split up by the federal government before the company would face its first real competitor.

The US may have founded the modern oil industry but it was not alone. The Russians had quickly developed their own industry when Baku in the Caucasus region spouted in 1873. As luck would have it Ludwig Nobel, son of a Swedish inventor, was in the area looking for walnut for the stocks of Russian rifles when he decided to invest his money in the embryonic industry by buying a refinery. Together with his brother Ludwig, the Nobels built up Russian production as well as distribution with the first efficient tanker ship to the point that American oil was being challenged for the first time in 1884. The challenge occurred in Europe and the effect was massive growth in the industrialized sectors.

While the Americans and Russians were at the forefront of development, Marcus Samuel, the son of a shell merchant from London, had established an extensive trade business with Far Eastern connections to ship kerosene to the rest of the world. He joined forces with the French Rothschild family and in 1891 he was shipping the illuminant oil from the Caucasus through the Suez Canal to Hong Kong and the Dutch East Indies. At the same time Royal Dutch Oil was exploiting far eastern oil and eventually Samuel's Shell Oil and the Rothschilds joined the company to become the powerhouse known as Royal Dutch/Shell.

Henry Ford's automobile built in 1896 spurred demand unlike any other invention and to meet that demand oil was discovered in Texas when a gusher blew at Spindletop in Beaumont in 1900 followed by California and Oklahoma. American companies popped up with names like Sun, Texaco, and Gulf. Standard gobbled up all the companies it could but was kept out of Texas by the ex-governor James Hogg. As had happened in Pennsylvania, flush production quickly drove prices down and the boom turned to a bust.

19th century progressivism propelled by "muckraking" journalists lowered its aim on Standard Oil following the writing of Ida Tarbell, the daughter of an oil tank maker. She lambasted the cutthroat practices of Standard in a series of articles in McClure's and this lead to public outcry for President Roosevelt, elected with campaign contributions from Standard Oil, to do something. He had the Justice Department sue the company under the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 in 1906. Five years later the company would be broken up by the Supreme Court. The dissolution created the following companies that would soon themselves dominate the industry: Standard of New Jersey became Esso

(later Exxon), Standard of New York became Mobil, Standard of California became Chevron, Standard of Ohio became Sohio (later merging with the American arm of BP), Standard of Indiana became Amoco, Continental became Conoco, and Atlantic became ARCO. The dragon was slain and the Seven Sisters were born.

If things were looking bad for Standard they weren't looking much better for Royal Dutch/Shell in Russia. A young man by the name of Joseph Djugashvili was organizing a workers rebellion known as the Bolshevik movement in the Caucasus. He would later change his name to Joseph Stalin and the movement would lead to the Russian Revolution in 1905. That seminal event caused the first major oil disruption and forced the companies to look for oil elsewhere. Elsewhere was the Middle East.