Crude oil became a global fuel, and eventually the world’s most important source of primary energy, thanks to the discoveries of giant oil fields in the Middle East and in the USSR—and, of course, also thanks to the introduction of large tankers. Some Middle Eastern giants were first drilled in the 1920s and 1930s (Iranian Gachsaran and Iraqi Kirkuk in 1927, Kuwaiti Burgan in 1937) but most of them were discovered after the war, including Ghawar (the world’s largest) in 1948, Safaniya in 1951, and Manifa in 1957, all in Saudi Arabia. The largest Soviet discoveries were in 1948 (Romashkino in
...more
