The Secret of the Seven Sisters
Last updated : 26 April 2013
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 .
In the first episode, we travel across the
Middle East, through both time and space .
"We waged the Iran -Iraq war and I say
we waged it, because one country had
to be used to destroy the other. As
they already benefit from the oil
bonanza, and they’ re building up
financal reserves , from time to time
they have to be bled ."
- Xavier Houzel, an oil trader
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 .
At the end of the 1960s, the Seven
Sisters, the major oil companies ,
controlled 85 percent of the world' s oil
reserves. Today, they control just 10
percent .
New hunting grounds are therefore
required, and the Sisters have turned
their gaze towards Africa. With peak oil ,
wars in the Middle East , and the rise in
crude prices, Africa is the oil companies '
new battleground.
"Everybody thought there could be oil
in Sudan but nobody knew anything . It
was revealed through exploration by
the American company Chevron,
towards the end of the 70s. And that
was the beginning of the second civil
war, which went on until 2002 . It
lasted for 19 years and cost a million
and a half lives and the oil business
was at the heart of it ."
- Gerard Prunier, a historian
But the real story, the secret story of oil ,
begins far from Africa .
In their bid to dominate Africa , the Sisters
installed a king in Libya , a dictator in
Gabon, fought the nationalisation of oil
resources in Algeria, and through
corruption, war and assassinations ,
brought Nigeria to its knees.
Oil may be flowing into the holds of huge
tankers, but in Lagos, petrol shortages are
chronic.
The country 's four refineries are obsolete
and the continent' s main oil exporter is
forced to import refined petrol - a paradox
that reaps fortunes for a handful of oil
companies .
Encouraged by the companies , corruption
has become a system of government -
some $ 50bn are estimated to have
'disappeared ' out of the $ 350 bn received
since independence .
But new players have now joined the
great oil game.
China, with its growing appetite for
energy, has found new friends in Sudan,
and the Chinese builders have moved in .
Sudan's President Omar al -Bashir is proud
of his co -operation with China - a dam on
the Nile, roads , and stadiums.
In order to export 500 ,000 barrels of oil a
day from the oil fields in the South -
China financed and built the Heglig
pipeline connected to Port Sudan - now
South Sudan's precious oil is shipped
through North Sudan to Chinese ports .
In a bid to secure oil supplies out of Libya ,
the US , the UK and the Seven Sisters
made peace with the once shunned
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, until he was
killed during the Libyan uprising of 2011,
but the flow of Libyan oil remains
uninterrupted.
In need of funds for rebuilding, Libya is
now back to pumping more than a million
barrels of oil per day. And the Sisters are
happy to oblige.
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
Caucusus 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.
Peak oil – the point in time at which the
highest rate of oil extraction has been
reached, and after which world production
will start decline . Many geologists and the
International Energy Agency say the
world's crude oil output reached its peak
in 2006.
But while there may be less oil coming
out of the ground, the demand for it is
definitely on the rise.
The final episode of this series explores
what happens when oil becomes more
and more inaccessible, while at the same
time, new powers like China and India try
to fulfill their growing energy needs.
And countries like Iran, while suffering
international sanctions , have welcomed
these new oil buyers , who put business
ahead of lectures on human rights and
nuclear ambitions.
At the same time , oil -producing countries
have had enough with the Seven Sisters
controlling their oil assets . Nationalisation
of oil reserves around the world has
ushered in a new generation of oil
companies all vying for a slice of the oil
pie.
These are the new Seven Sisters.
Saudi Arabia 's Saudi Aramco , the largest
and most sophisticated oil company in the
world; Russia 's Gazprom , a company that
Russia' s President Vladimir Putin wrested
away from the oligarchs ; The China
National Petroleum Corporation ( CNPC ),
which , along with its subsidiary ,
Petrochina , is the world' s secnd largest
company in terms of market value ; The
National Iranian Oil Company, which has a
monopoly on exploration, extraction ,
transportation and exportation of crude oil
in Iran – OPEC's second largest oil
producer after Saudi Arabia ; Venezuela 's
PDVSA, a company the late president
Hugo Chavez dismantled and rebuilt into
his country' s economic engine and part of
his diplomatic arsenal ; Brazil's Petrobras , a
leader in deep water oil production, that
pumps out 2 million barrels of crude oil a
day; and Malaysia 's Petronas - Asia 's most
profitable company in 2012.
Mainly state -owned , the new Seven
Sisters control a third of the world 's oil
and gas production, and more than a third
of the world 's reserves . The old Seven
Sisters, by comparison , produce a tenth of
the world 's oil , and control only three
percent of the reserves .
The balance has shifted.
