The Peace on The Horizon - 75 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East (64)

 

(Japanese Version)

(Arabic Version)

 

(contents)

 

Chapter 3 The grace of Allah – Oil boom (1)

 

064 The dawn of oil industries in the Middle East (1/3)

Anglo Iranian Oil (current BP) led oil development in the Middle East. BP was established as a state-run company. During the World War I, Sir Winston Churchill, then Navy Minister and later Prime Minister, put the priority for oil development to secure the fuel of ships. BP acquired development rights in Iran and furthermore got Kirkuk oil fields in Iraq and Burgan oil fields in Kuwait.

 

 The latecomer US companies approached Saudi Arabia to acquire development rights. They discovered the world's largest Ghawar oilfield in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula, and further discovered Safaniya oilfield off the coast of the Peninsula. Four US companies of Esso, Mobil, Socal and Texaco set up the Arabian American Oil Company (so-called Aramco), and monopolized oil production in Saudi Arabia. Seven Sisters established the overwhelming presence in the oil belt of the Middle East. They dominated world oil industry.

 

(To be continued ----)

 

 

Areha Kazuya

(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)