The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power

by Daniel Yergin

On the one side there was the intense, deadly serious pressure from the Arab governments. The threat was explicit; the companies could lose their entire position in the Middle East. When the Saudis ordered the first 10 percent cutback on October 18, Aramco responded immediately, and it cut just a little extra for good measure. Here would unfold the anomalous, unpalatable sight of an American company—the most important jewel, some thought, of all American investments abroad—in a position that it had worked to avoid at all costs: actually implementing an embargo against the United States. But what choice did it have? Was it not better to cooperate and move as much oil onto the world market as possible than to be nationalized and thrown out? “The only alternative was not to ship the oil at all,” Chevron’s George Keller, an Aramco director, said afterward. “Obviously it was in the best interests of the United States to move 5, 6, 7 million barrels per day to our friends around the world rather than to have that cut off.” Yet on the other side were the consuming governments, all of which sought the oil their publics needed. The most powerful of them happened to be the United States, not only the home government of five of the seven majors, but also the primary target for the whole exercise. Any action the companies took, they knew, would be subject to the closest scrutiny and after-the-fact evaluation. They did not want to lose markets, nor find themselves shut out, nor invite ...