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

by Daniel Yergin

The postwar battle over rents was not exclusively limited to economics. It was also a political struggle. For the landlords, the oil-producing countries, the struggle was interwoven with the themes of sovereignty, nation-building, and the powerful nationalistic assertion against the “foreigners,” who were said to be “exploiting” the country, stifling development, denying social prosperity, perhaps corrupting the body politic, and certainly acting as “masters”—in a haughty, arrogant, and “superior” manner. They were seen as the all-too-visible embodiment of colonialism. Nor did their sins end there; they were, in addition, draining off the “irreplaceable heritage” and bounty of the landlord and his future generations. Of course, the oil companies saw it all quite differently. They had taken the risks and held their breath, they chose to put their capital and efforts here and not there, and they signed laboriously negotiated contracts, which gave them certain rights. They had created value where there was none. They needed to be compensated for the risks they had taken—and the dry holes they had drilled. They believed that they were being put upon by greedy, rapacious, and unreliable local powers-that-be. They did not think that they were “exploiting”; their plaintive cry was, “We wuz robbed.” There was yet another political dimension to the struggle. To the consuming countries in the industrial world, access to oil was a strategic prize, not only vital to their economy and ...