of corporations
known as the Seven Sisters.
Which included Exxon, Texaco, and international
names like Royal Dutch Shell.
In the years after World War 2, a few countries
were no longer happy with being colonies and
having their vast oil reserves controlled
by foreign corporations, so they decided to
nationalize their oil industries after they
gained independence.
The messiest and most famous example of this
involved Britain and Iran.
Once oil was discovered in Iran in 1908, it
was bought and controlled by the British via
the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
Which was renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
in 1935.
In 1951, the Prime Minister of Iran decided
that Iran’s oil industry should be controlled
by Iran and after nationalizing it, kicked
the British out.
Britain depended on that oil during WW2 and
was unwilling to part with it,
They appealed to Eisenhower’s anti-communist
sentiments and secured the help of the CIA,
together theycorporations had formed a group
known as the Seven Sisters, which controlled
83% of the world’s proven oil reserves until
the 1960s.
Then, several other countries decided to do
what Iran attempted to do.
In 1960, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries, more commonly known as OPEC, was
founded to take control of the oil industry
from multinational corporations and give it
to national governments.
It’s founding members include Iran – which
successfully nationalized its oil during the
Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iraq, Kuwait,
Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.
About a dozen other countries have joined
or left over the years, but all together,
they now control 73% of the world’s oil
reserves.
And almost all of them price their oil in
US dollars – why?
In 1971, President Nixon took the United States
off of the gold standard, and in order to
keep the dollar stable, decided to pin its
value to