These firms – comprised of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (which changed its name in 1935 to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, and is now BP), Royal Dutch Shell, three iterations of Standard Oil (Standard Oil of California, Standard Oil of New Jersey, and Standard Oil Company of New York), Gulf Oil, and Texaco -- were able to control oil exploration, development, transport and pricing for decades up to October 1973. The then-Saudi Minister of Oil and Mineral Reserves, Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, highlighted that the extremely negative effects on the West of the oil embargo marked a fundamental shift in the world balance of power between the developing nations that produced oil and the developed industrial nations that consumed it. However, from that point onwards, the U.S. was determined to keep the power of these Middle Eastern countries in check, which it largely achieved through a policy variant of Henry Kissinger’s ‘triangular diplomacy’ that he advocated in formulating the dealings of the US with the two other major powers of the time, Russia and China.
Author: Simon Watkins
Published at: 2025-11-12 00:00:00
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