THE CURSE OF OIL

The Story of OIL

The Pioneers
The Quest
The Weapon
The Revenge of the Market
The Curse and The Future

A New One-Hour Documentary (completed) and Four Hour Series (in production) Produced by Films du Village and Planet Group Entertainment in Co-Production with France 5 and Histoire.

A Film by Jean Pierre Beaurenmont

Including interviews with:
Sheik Yamani, Former Oil Minister of Saudi Arabia and Head of OPEC
James Akins, Former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia
Nicolas Sarkis, Expert and Advisor for OPEC
Ian Seymour, Editor Emeritus MEES

Now completed, OIL is a landmark one-hour and potential four-hour series designed to enlighten the public in an entertaining, informative manner, providing the answers to one of the most important paradoxes of our time...Oil. It is key to everyday life on this planet, yet beyond a few experts, very few of us really understand its story and the mechanisms of its economy.

Oil starts with the topical facts concerning oil today so as to root the film in the present and show how important oil is in all fields of human activity. The introduction highlights the main themes to be developed in the film. The themes are closely linked with one another and encompass a wide range of different issues...from science and technology to geopolitics and political strategies. The film then constantly moves from the past to the present, from the pioneers at the end of the 19th Century to today so as to recall the stages of a great adventure with tremendously high stakes.

Oil ends on a question about the future of Oil. There remain unexplored and unexploited reserves of oil all over the planet, yet it is not a renewable resource and will approach extinction sometime in the not too distant future. For the time being, Oil will remain an essential element of the world economy for many years to come.

Oil, The Chapters…(One-Hour Version)

Prologue.

For better or for worse Black Gold has disrupted world history since the beginning of the 20th Century.

Part 1.
The Pioneers 1875-1928

The fabulous epic of the black gold rush and its oil kings. Rockefeller and his empire, The Standard Oil Company was, among others, the models for today’s Major Companies. For the Better…Oil broke through to the industrial world with the commercialization of the internal combustion engine and the genius of Henry Ford with his popular Model T. For the Worse…Oil became the blood of war as it increased one-hundred-fold the destructive power of WWI, replacing cavalry with motorized troops.

America, in the Roaring 20’s, became the great leader of the world’s industrialized countries. They were not only the first producers but also the first consumers of the world’s black gold. To stay in control, the American Majors started to diversify their supply. England, which still had its powerful Empire, did the same.

Part 2
The Quest: Conquering South America

By the 1930’s most of the consuming nations were in the Northern Hemisphere, yet the black gold was mostly to be found in the Southern regions of the Planet.

The Majors, in their quest for black gold, resorted to methods worthy of the ruthless diggers of the California Gold Rush and likewise, they competed fiercely with each other. The seven biggest formed a cartel called The Seven Sisters, putting an end to their fratricidal struggles, steadying the markets and last but not least, fairly sharing the oil cake among themselves.

Innovations in geological exploration led first to Mexico and then Venezuela, who, like the others in their region, were still colonies or unstable, with easily corruptible, unsteady governments.

Venezuela became the first exporting country in the world. Its leaders became puppets of the Anglo-American Majors. Venezuela got 10% of the revenue, mostly channeled into the hands of the corrupted ruling class. Little if any of these revenues made their way down the food chain of the impoverished nation. Strikes erupted in 1925 and 1938, the very first to take place in the world of OIL.

Rebellion and outburst also took place in Mexico, ending with a real blow when President Cardenas nationalized Mexican Black Gold, heralding the struggles to come as the third-world producing nations attempted to wrangle control of their national wealth from the Majors.

In these early years, production of Black Gold in Iran and Iraq remained in the hands of the English Companies under similar conditions.

The importance of Black Gold during WWII was five times greater than in WWI.

These reserves were to become an essential advantage for the Allies during WWII as Germany’s eventual defeat was in certain part brought on by their significant lack of supply.

Part 3
Oil as a Weapon

After the war, the industrial countries of the world experienced unprecedented growth. Cheap oil, and more specifically Middle Eastern oil was flowing to meet the demand. Saudi Arabia became America's reserved domain through a holding of American companies called ARAMCO.

At the same time the third-world producing countries experienced a nationalist awakening. Oil became a weapon in their struggle for economic independence and political freedom.

Venezuela paved the way by imposing the 50-50 sharing of revenues rule on the Majors.

Iran tried to follow their action, but The Anglo-American Oil Company refused to cave in which led to revolution and the flight of the Shah. In 1951, the new Prime Minister, Mossadegh, nationalized the oil fields; and the Majors boycotted their production. After two years of economic depression and chaos, Mossadegh was deposed and the Shah re-instated...a setback for third-world control over their reserves.

The next warning shot at the Majors was dealt by Nasser, the Egyptian President and Hero of the Arab World who decided to nationalize the Suez Canal and control the flow of Black Gold on its way to Europe. There was panic in Paris, London, Frankfort, etc. The first oil crisis. A Franco-Anglo-Israeli Military operation failed to stop him.

At the same time the Europeans tried to free themselves of the cartel of the Majors. Mattei, head of the first Italian National Oil Company, tried to bypass the Majors and deal directly with the producing nations. His plans were cut short. He died under unknown mysterious circumstances.

The real rebellion took place in the early 60's with the creation of OPEC, the brainchild of Juan Pablo Perez of Venezuela and Tariki of Saudi Arabia. Characterized as "an aggressive conglomeration of camel drivers' emirates and banana republics" by the Washington Post in 1960, OPEC was expected to last only a few short years, but last it has.

Their dream was to make Black Gold a means of development for the Third World. OPEC reached its peak of influence in the early 70's with the admission of Libya and Algeria at the time of the Yom Kippur War when Black Gold shot up five times its existing price in a matter of months, throwing the world into financial turmoil...putting an end to 30 years of prosperity in Europe. There was an outburst of joy in the Third World, but that was to be short-lived.

Part 4
The Revenge of the Market

Late into the 70's the Crisis seemed to have been reversed, but there was another problem in development...The Islamic Revolution caused the downfall of the Shah of Iran. National Oil production collapsed and many of the OPEC countries took advantage of the situation to jack-up prices.

The Iran-Iraq war worsened the situation and oil started to become a precious commodity with the intervention of the spot market, a day-to-day free market that sent the price of crude skyrocketing. It was no longer a formal business and speculation ruled. The industrial countries reacted favorably by reducing consumption and creating energy saving technologies. The dollar fell.

With the fall of the dollar, the OPEC countries found themselves in a conundrum, falling revenues, and the economic collapse of massive development plans aimed at creating third-world economies less dependent on the profits flowing from Black Gold.

The Third World Dream of the oil producing countries to preserve, protect and enhance their economies had turned into a very private club of feudal, dictatorial regimes and pseudo-democracies. At its origin, there were five countries: Venezuela, Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia followed later by Qatar, Indonesia, Libya, Abu Dhabi, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador and Gabon.

Ironically most of the OPEC members, with completely different interests, are being ravaged by violent, internal social unrest. An unrest that continues to haunt the Western Powers, spawning waves of terrorism that continue to threaten the long march of industrialization and the vision of globalization.

The Industrial Nations had technologically and economically 'turned the corner' and found themselves once again on the positive side of the oil issue.

Part 5
Epilogue

The Curse and The Future

What will the role of oil be tomorrow? What will it be replaced with? Some experts believe that there is enough to keep the world chugging along for another three hundred years! Others claim that product of world reserves will start falling in the next generation.

The irony of history is that it has been the world's auto industry, the major cause of oil consumption that has started to press for new technologies that operate on new, renewable resources.

The Industrial Nations have paid dearly for Oil and in many cases squandered its consumption and ignored the need to develop renewable resources at a faster pace.

Sadly it has been the Oil producing States of South America and the Middle East who could be the final losers in the Big Game of Black Oil. Their failure to democratize as nations and effectively manage the great wealth that oil has created for them has left them with economies that function to a lesser degree today than ever. They have squandered their resource and left their peoples behind, unable to function and compete in an ever-changing world.

The Curse of Back Gold: God gave them the oil, we paid them for it. They squandered the revenue, we over-consumed the resource. –James Akins, Former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

The Curse of Oil one-hour and potential series is a 20th Century chronicle...uncovering the complex mechanisms of supply and demand...revealing the devious ploys of OPEC's members...showing how the original "dream" of its founders has been transformed into an appalling display of waste, misfortune and terrorism.

The one-hour introduces us to the actors, the witnesses, and the narrators. Members of OPEC, politicians from the industrialized and producing countries and oil company executives. Each player on this stage presents his own version of the story and contradictory points of view are presented in a balanced fashion.

How and why has Oil influenced our lives? What were its origins? How can its exploitation be linked to history? Who played an important role? These are just some of the questions 'The Big Game of Black Gold' attempts to bring to light.

Written and directed by an award-winning international team of dedicated documentary filmmakers, Black Gold presents a tale of conflict AND co-operation between Western and Third World powers that influences the daily lives of every person on the Planet.

For more information contact: patricknagle@pgeparis.com