If, 200 years ago, someone said that the main driving force behind most wars in the twentieth century would be oil, others would doubt its adequacy. Is this harmless, smelly liquid sold in pharmacies? Who needs it, and so much so that it makes sense to unleash wars?
Because of these test tubes of war? Dismiss!
But in a very short time, by historical standards, oil has become the most valuable raw material available. It is not valuable in terms of value, but in terms of the breadth of application in the economy.
The first jump in oil demand happened when the kerosene obtained from it was used for lighting. Then the use was found of the previously considered junk gasoline - the motorization of the planet began. Then the next processing wastes were used - oils and diesel fuel. They learned to produce a wide variety of substances and materials from oil, many of which do not exist in organic nature.
Modern oil refinery
At the same time, the presence on its territory of deposits of such valuable and widely used raw materials does not always bring prosperity or economic stability to the state. Oil is produced not by states, but by transnational corporations, which are backed by the military might of the largest states. And the governments receive the part of the proceeds that the oilmen agree to pay. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, for example, Arab states received between $ 12 and $ 25 per barrel of oil produced on their territory. Attempts to play their game for some overly brave heads of state cost their careers, and even their lives. In their countries, there were dissatisfied with something (and in which country everyone is happy with everything), and even further before the daredevil lay a wide choice of resignation, exile, death, or a combination of these options.
This practice continues to this day. Moreover, presidents and prime ministers are overthrown and killed not for actions, but for the theoretical possibility of committing them. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was extremely loyal to the West, but this did not save him from a brutal murder. And his fate is no different from that of Saddam Hussein, who sought to pursue an independent policy. Sometimes “black gold” becomes a curse ...
1. Up to the middle of the twentieth century, Baku was the main oil-producing region of Russia and the USSR. They knew about oil in Russia before, and knew how to process it, but when in 1840 the governor of Transcaucasia sent samples of Baku oil to the Academy of Sciences, scientists answered him that this liquid was useless for anything other than lubricating bogie axles. There were a couple of decades left before the oil boom ...
2. Extraction of oil does not always bring prosperity and success in life. The founder of the Russian oil industry, Fyodor Pryadunov, successfully mined copper and lead until he discovered an oil field. The millionaire invested all his money in the development of the deposit, received a government subsidy, but never achieved anything. Fyodor Pryadunov died in a debt prison.
Fyodor Pryadunov
3. The world's first oil refinery was opened in early 1856 in what is now Poland. Ignacy Lukashevich opened an enterprise that produced kerosene and oils for lubricating mechanisms, the number of which increased like an avalanche during the scientific and technological revolution. The plant lasted only a year (it burned down), but staked out the primacy for its creator.
Ignacy Lukashevich
4. The first commercial dispute, which was caused by oil, after a century and a half seems like a farce. Prominent American scientist Benjamin Silliman received an order from a group of entrepreneurs in 1854. The essence of the order was extremely simple: to investigate whether it is possible to use oil for lighting, and along the way, if possible, to identify any other useful properties of this fossil, in addition to medicinal (oil was then sold in pharmacies and was used to treat a wide range of diseases). Silliman fulfilled the order, but the business shark consortium was in no hurry to pay for the work. The scientist had to threaten to publish the research results in the press, and only after that he received the required amount. It was 526 dollars 8 cents. And the "entrepreneurs" weren't smart - they really didn't have that kind of money, they had to borrow.
Ben Silliman never gave his research results for free
5. The fuel in the first kerosene lamps had nothing to do with oil - kerosene was then obtained from coal. Only in the second half of the 19th century, after the already mentioned studies of B. Silliman, they began to obtain kerosene from oil. It was the switch to petroleum kerosene that spurred the explosive demand for oil.
6. Initially, the distillation of oil was carried out in order to obtain kerosene and lubricating oils. Lighter fractions (i.e., primarily gasoline) were by-products of processing. Only by the beginning of the 20th century, with the spread of cars, gasoline became a commercial product. And back in the 1890s in the United States, it could be bought for 0.5 cents per liter.
7. Oil in Siberia was discovered by Mikhail Sidorov back in 1867, however, the difficult climatic and geological conditions at that time made the extraction of "black gold" in the north unprofitable. Sidorov, who made millions from gold mining, went bankrupt and replenished the oil producers' martyrology.
Mikhail Sidorov
8. The first massive US oil production began in the hamlet of Titusville, Pennsylvania. People reacted to the discovery of a relatively new mineral as the discovery of gold. In a couple of days in 1859, the population of Titusville increased several times, and barrels of whiskey, into which the extracted oil was poured, were bought several times more expensive than the cost of a similar volume of oil. At the same time, the oil producers received their first safety lesson. The “warehouse” of Colonel E. L. Drake (the author of the famous phrase that the chief judge is his six-shot Colt), whose workers were the first to discover oil, burned out from the fire of an ordinary kerosene lamp. The oil in the warehouse was stored even in pans ...
Colonel Drake, despite his merits, died in poverty
9. Fluctuations in oil prices are by no means a twentieth-century invention. Immediately after the opening of the first flowing well in Pennsylvania, producing 3,000 barrels per day, the price fell from $ 10 to 10 cents, and then rose to $ 7.3 a barrel. And all this for a year and a half.
10. In Pennsylvania, not far from the famous Titusville, there is a town whose history is not very popular with advertising. It is called Pithole. In 1865, oil was extracted in its vicinity, it was in January. In July, a Pithole resident, who a year ago unsuccessfully tried to get a bank loan for $ 500 on the security of land and a farm, sold this farm for $ 1.3 million, and a couple of months later the new owner resold it for $ 2 million. Banks, telegraph stations, hotels, newspapers, boarding houses appeared in the city. But the wells dried up, and in January 1866 Pithole returned to his usual state of a blind provincial hole.
11. At the dawn of oil production, John Rockefeller, who owned a respectable oil business at that time (he bought half of his share for $ 72,500), was somehow left without his usual buns. It turned out that the German baker, from whom the family had been buying rolls for many years, decided that the oil business was more promising, sold the bakery and founded an oil company. Rockefeller said that he and his partners had to buy out the oil company from the German and convince him to return to his usual profession. Knowing Rockefeller's methods in business, it is possible to say with a high degree of probability that the German did not receive a dime for his company - the Rockefellers always knew how to convince.
John Rockefeller looks at the camera lens as an object for possible absorption
12. The idea to search for oil in Saudi Arabia for the then king of this country Ibn Saud was prompted by Jack Philby, the father of the world famous intelligence officer. Compared to his dad, Kim was the model of a gentleman. Jack Philby has consistently criticized the British authorities, even while in public service. And when he quit his job, Jack went all out. He moved to Saudi Arabia and even converted to Islam. Becoming a personal friend of King Ibn Saud, Philby Sr. spent a lot of time with him on trips around the country. Saudi Arabia's two main problems in the 1920s were money and water. Neither one nor the other was sorely lacking. And Philby suggested looking for oil instead of water - if it is found, both of the main problems of the kingdom will be solved.
Ibn Saud
13. Refining and petrochemicals are two completely different industries. Refiners separate oil into different fractions, and petrochemists get their oil outwardly remote substances, such as synthetic fabrics or mineral fertilizers.
14. Anticipating a possible breakthrough of Hitler's troops in the Transcaucasus and the accompanying shortage of oil, the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Lavrenty Beria, invented and implemented an original scheme for transporting oil. The combustible liquid extracted in the Baku region was loaded into railway tanks, which were then dumped into the Caspian Sea. Then the tanks were tied up and towed to Astrakhan. There they were again put on carriages and transported further north. And the oil was stored simply in appropriately prepared ravines, along the edges of which dams were arranged.
Hydro train?
15. The stream of outright lies and verbal balancing act that erupted from TV screens and newspaper pages during the 1973 oil crisis was a powerful hypnotic attack for American and European ordinary people. Leading "independent" economic publications poured nonsense into the ears of fellow citizens in the spirit of "Arab oil-producing countries need to pump oil for only 8 minutes to buy the Eiffel Tower with all the staff and the management company." The fact that the annual income of all 8 Arab oil producing countries only slightly exceeded 4% of US GDP remained behind the scenes.
"Arabs stole your gasoline, brother"
16. The first oil bourse opened in Titusville in 1871. Traded in three types of contracts: "spot" (immediate delivery), 10-day delivery and familiar to all of us "futures", which made fortunes and went bankrupt, without seeing oil and eyes.
17. The great chemist Dmitry Mendeleev foresaw the dominance of oil in industry. Dmitry Ivanovich invented an apparatus for the continuous distillation of oil and devices for the production of fuel oil and oils long before they became relevant.
Dmitry Mendeleev rightly believed that it was unacceptable to use oil only as fuel
18. In Western Europe and the United States, stories about the 1973-1974 “gasoline crisis” will be heard even by the great-great-grandchildren of people who drove their cars into parking lots near gas stations. Bad Arabs sharply raised the price of oil from 5.6 to 11.25 dollars per barrel. As a result of these treacherous actions, the great-great-grandfather's gallon of gasoline rose fourfold. At the same time, the dollar fell by about 15%, which softened the inflationary blow.
Gasoline crisis. Hippies picnic on empty freeways
19. The story of the beginning of oil production in Iran is now described as a tearful melodrama. Gold miner William D'Arcy in his old age (51 years old and about 7 million pounds in store) goes to Iran in search of oil. The Shah of Iran and his ministers for 20,000 pounds and mythical promises of 10% of oil and 16% of the profits of a company that finds oil, give 4/5 of Iran's territory to development. The engineer ordered by D'Arcy and the company spends all the money, but does not find oil (of course!), And receives an order to go to England. The engineer (his name was Reynolds) did not carry out the order, and continued the exploration. It was then that it all started ... Reynolds found oil, D'Arcy and the shareholders found money, the shah kept 20,000 pounds with him, and the Iranian budget, with which D'Arcy (founder of British Petroleum) was enthusiastically bargaining, did not see even the miserable agreed interest ...
William D'Arcy in his search for oil could not calm down even in old age
20. The death of Enrico Mattei is a good illustration of the mores prevailing in the oil elite. This Italian was appointed director of the state-owned energy company AGIP after World War II. It was supposed to patch up the economy destroyed by the war, and then sell the company. In a short time, Mattei managed to revive and expand the company, finding small oil and gas fields in Italy. Later, on the basis of AGIP, an even more powerful energy concern ENI was formed, which actually controlled the lion's share of the Italian economy. While Mattei was busy on the Apennine Peninsula, they turned a blind eye to his power. But when the Italian company began to conclude independent deals for the supply of oil from the USSR and other socialist countries, the initiative was quickly stopped. The plane with Mattei on board crashed. At first, a verdict was issued about a technical malfunction or pilot error, but a re-investigation showed that the plane was blown up. The perpetrators have not been identified.
Enrique Mattei tried to climb into the wrong clearing and was severely punished. No followers were found
