The Peace on The Horizon - 75 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East (65)

 

(Japanese Version)

(Arabic Version)

 

(contents)

 

Chapter 3 The grace of Allah – Oil boom (2)

 

065 The dawn of oil industries in the Middle East (2/4)

At the end of the 19th century, gasoline and diesel engines were invented that used petroleum as fuel instead of the coal-fired steam engine. This technology revolutionized the transportation sector and rapidly spread for military vehicles as tanks and warships. As a result, the demand for oil has sharply increased. Oilfields have been discovered around the world. In 1908 Persia (Iran) discovered the oil. Oil discoveries in the Middle East were followed one after another; Iraq in 1928, Kuwait in 1938 and Saudi Arabia in 1940. Oilfields that spread from Iran to Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi were called "oil belts".

 

It was European and American oil companies that worked on the development of the oil belts. Among them, 7 companies called "Seven Sisters" showed a great performance. They were five US companies, one British company and one UK-Dutch company, i.e. Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (Esso), Standard Oil Company of New York (Mobil), Standard Oil Company of California (Socal), Gulf Oil, Texaco, Anglo Iranian Oil Company (BP) and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (Shell) of UK/Dutch consortium. The first three companies bearing the name of “Standard” were born after the split of Standard Oil Company which were founded by John D. Rockefeller, Sr and divided by the antitrust law, Esso and Mobil subsequently merged into ExxonMobil. Socal, Gulf Oil and Texaco also merged and is now Chevron.

 

(To be continued ----)

 

 

Areha Kazuya

(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)