The Oil multinationals and International relations

This study refers to the importance of Oil multinational companies or what we commonly call « the Majors » and their influence on international relations.
It is due to the importance of oil industry with regard to the producing and exporting countries versus the importing and consuming oil countries that our interest has been mostly focused here, and also with regard to the whole humanity which considers this product one of the most vital and necessary resource in the world. It is with no exaggeration that we consider our era “the oil era”, according to the fact that most of oil discoveries and hydrocarbons project developments have marked the end of the XIXth century, as well as the whole XXth century.
We can say that the most important books, magazines, newspapers, electronic news, radio, television information and different documentation have report at any time on this matter. We can says, without any exaggeration, that there is no month, no week, no day, no hour, the word ”oil” has not been reported or pronounced around the world.
But oil is not only dealt with as any other merchandise to be sold and bought in international markets, but it is also considered as the most important strategic matter since World War I according to the important necessity given to it by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill when he was Admiral, and when he considered his success due to the oil supply for the Royal Navy and military vehicles. This also reminds the famous statement of Georges Clemenceau, the former French Prime Minister when he said:”Oil is like blood which circulates in our veins”.
The role of oil has been then reinforced during World War II when Adolf Hitler at first, occupied the oil fields of Rumania in order to insure his oil supplies and tried to reach the fields of the former Soviet Union, especially in Baku. After the Second World War, oil has been transformed from a commercial product for domestic uses and industrial development like transportation, communication, agriculture, petro-chemicals, medicine, etc...to a strategic product for power and war.
As far as the United States was the first country to discover the first oil field by Edwin Drake and developed by Rockefeller for more than half-a-century, as far as the United States has been the leader in developing this technology, as far as this country wouldn’t live without this necessary and vital product, even if this would lead to intervention by force. Kissinger has said: “Where there is oil, there is power, and who owns oil, owns force and power.”
The American oil multinationals are the leaders, not only on the oil fields and their industry, but also in decision making of international relations. They are important actors always backed by their government policy for American interests.
Consequently, as oil became a strategic product in peace and war, it became then impossible for these oil companies and their governments to do without it even if they could be forced to take hold on this wealth by force, which required in their policy a specific attention for the security of the existing oil reserves, especially the Gulf ones in order to preserve their security and guarantee oil supplies at any time.
But what has also characterized this special era, it is all the conflicts that we have known until now. The first remarkable event which has really characterized these conflicts was the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war which has lead to a terrible embargo declared by OPEC and Arab countries against the United states and its allies who have supported Israel in its agression against Arab countries. The second oil shock has been the Iranian Islamic Revolution which has overthrown the regime of Shah Redha Pahlavi, the most important ally of the American policy in the region. Came after that, other oil shocks, like the two Gulf wars (in 1980 and 1990), and finally the intervention and occupation of Irak by American forces “to preserve”, for their own interests and by any means, the oil resources of the second reserves in the world ..
This, of course, has lead to a real competition against other competitors like some emergent countries such as China, India and even Indonesia and Brazil to
enter the African and South American oil fields in order to compete the American, British and French companies, and by the same time, to awaken the other dormant giant, the Russian Federation to put hands on his neighboring wealthy Caspian Sea, such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, where China and India have already got foothold there in association with the Russians.

Dr. Mohammed Khettaoui

شكرا جزيلا استاذ ختاوي ..

The topic is extremely rich in terms of information and language

I read it all

[QUOTE=أديب قصراوي;]
شكرا جزيلا استاذ ختاوي ..
The topic is extremely rich in terms of information and language
I read it all
أخي الأستاذ أديب قصراوي
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بارك الله فيك، وأرجو أن أكون دوماً عند حسن ظن الجميع.
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