History 101 (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Oil and the Middle East - full transcript
Oil has brought great wealth to the Middle East and ignited major wars. Is it a blessing or a curse for the region, as well as the rest of the world?
1991.
The opening shots of the first Gulf War.
A US-led coalition takes on Iraq...
punishing Saddam Hussein
for his invasion of Kuwait.
It's one of the most intense
air bombardments ever.
But this isn't just about standing up
to a bully.
It's also about controlling one
of the world's most precious resources...
oil.
Oil has brought astronomical wealth
to the Middle East.
What were once
some of the poorest countries on Earth...
are now some of the richest.
Luxury playgrounds for the super wealthy.
Five countries in the Middle East are
among the 25 wealthiest in the world.
The most profitable company
on the planet is Saudi Aramco,
Saudi Arabia's oil operator.
Its 2018 profits were $111 billion.
Yet the region's cursed by conflict.
In the last 60 years alone,
there have been five major wars
and five uprisings.
So, for the Middle East,
is oil a blessing...
or a curse?
In the last hundred years,
oil has transformed and shaped our lives.
Without it,
the modern world simply would not exist.
Thanks to oil, the planet has shrunk.
We travel constantly.
From oil, we get plastics,
which show up in everything,
from shoes to technology...
to medicine.
And when you think of oil,
you think of one place:
the Middle East.
There's just a handful of countries
all clustered together
that supply well over a third
of all the oil the world uses.
The age of oil in the Middle East
begins in the early 1900s,
when, after seven years
of wandering in the desert,
determined British geologist
George Bernard Reynolds
finally discovers oil in Persia,
modern-day Iran.
British prospectors found oil
in commercial quantities.
This was well number one.
In the following years,
the oil derricks sprang up
along the foothills of the mountain.
A year later,
the Anglo-Persian Oil Company is launched.
The timing is excellent.
World War I proves oil
makes a far better energy source
than coal for ships.
And it powers new tanks and planes.
Demand quickly grows.
From the start,
oil is measured in barrels.
The inspiration comes
partly from another valuable liquid,
whiskey.
Rather than reinvent the wheel,
oil producers just take
the 40-gallon whiskey barrel
and use that for the gooey,
tar-like substance.
Add two extra gallons for spills,
and there you have it.
So what do you get
from one barrel of oil?
Quite a bit, actually.
You get enough gas
to drive a car 280 miles...
...and a large truck 40 miles
and a gallon of tar
for covering roads or roofs...
...and a quart of motor oil.
But, wait, there's more.
You'll have enough petrochemicals left
to make either 540 toothbrushes
or 135 rubber balls.
Even before World War I is over,
Britain and France secretly agree
to carve up the Middle East between them.
And it's all about the oil.
The Arabs are not consulted.
Fractured into tribes and kingdoms,
they are powerless to stop events.
The seeds of a conflict
that will last decades are planted.
But why exactly is the Middle East
blessed with so much oil?
It's because of how the surface
of the Earth evolved.
Way, way back,
at least 100 million years ago,
what's now desert in the Middle East
was the bed of an inland sea.
Microscopic organisms sank to the bottom,
getting crushed.
Over the centuries, they were
pressure-cooked into crude oil.
Eventually, the waters receded,
and the dry dunes of the Middle East
emerged,
leaving those massive deposits of oil
tantalizingly close to the surface.
Now everyone knows where the oil is
and why it's so valuable.
So when World War II breaks out,
the Allies make sure
Hitler never gets his hands on it.
The huge demand for oil,
both during the war
and in the years following,
spurs companies to hunt
for more black gold
throughout the Middle East.
Turns out it's everywhere.
In 1938, oil is found in Kuwait
and then Saudi Arabia.
In 1940, it's discovered in Qatar.
Oil is found in 1958
in the United Arab Emirates.
In Yemen in 1961.
And in 1962, Oman finds oil.
After World War II,
America's newly-thriving middle class
wants more convenience and luxury.
And, unscarred by the war,
America's factories quickly pivot
from making weapons
to churning out consumer goods,
increasing America's thirst for oil.
A nation's standard of living
surged forward.
But postwar France and Britain
start to lose their global influence...
and their grip on the oil supply...
especially
when Middle Eastern nations realize
just how much wealth
lies beneath their feet.
They want to take control
of their own destiny.
British influence in Jordan
is under a cloud.
Saudi Arabia
has been independent since 1932.
But in 1946, Syria and Lebanon
free themselves from France.
That same year, Britain leaves Jordan.
But America still needs
to keep that oil flowing.
Time to start cutting deals.
In 1951, America agrees
to supply Saudi Arabia with arms
if they'll continue to supply America
with oil.
The Saudi royal family
is soon rolling in profits
and weapons.
And the rest of the oil-soaked nations
in the Middle East sit up and take notice.
From Tehran, fanatical supporters
storming through the streets
in a riotous mob.
In 1953,
Iran's democratically-elected leader
kicks out the British after nationalizing
the country's oil fields
two years earlier.
There's a power struggle
to remove the monarch, the Shah.
The UK and the US are furious.
The Shah's a keen supporter
of their oil interests.
American and British spies engineer a coup
to return power to the throne.
Literally overnight,
the whole picture was reversed.
They reinstate the Shah,
who had flown to Italy
to escape the violence.
The stay of the Shah of Persia
and Queen Soraya in Rome
was of short duration.
And, from the turmoil of Tehran,
news came that the royalist coup
had been successful after all.
But Iran isn't
the only Middle East nation
in political turmoil because of oil.
Now the most dangerous crisis
of all: revolution in Iraq.
In 1958, another coup.
This time, in Iraq.
The army seizes power,
overthrowing the king,
a long-time supporter of British interests
in the region.
King Faisal, enthroned in 1953,
and his cousin, Crown Prince 'Abd al-Ilah,
regent for 14 years,
were reported to have been murdered.
The young king and his government
had committed the crime
of friendship with the West.
The coup ends British influence
over oil in Iraq
and leads to the rise of a man
who will later become
America's arch-enemy,
Saddam Hussein.
As the old colonial powers lose influence
and new states emerge,
the Middle East takes on
a new, independent spirit.
Oil-producing states
start working together
to protect the value of their oil fields.
They want Arabian oil for the Arabs.
In September 1960,
they form a new and powerful alliance...
OPEC, the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Its public mission
is to stabilize oil prices and supply.
In truth, it's a price-fixing cartel.
The first Middle East members
are Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.
But their new-found oil profits
aren't being reinvested in their people.
Instead, Middle East autocrats
use their riches
to spend lavishly
on personal palaces, cars,
and military hardware.
In one deal,
the US supplies the Saudis
with an air defense system
worth $1.6 billion.
But the flow of riches for oil
comes to a crashing halt in 1973
with the first oil shock.
The US dollar takes a nosedive,
and OPEC feels the pinch.
All their oil contracts are in dollars.
Flexing its muscles, OPEC embargoes
oil exports to the United States,
Western Europe, and Japan,
drastically cutting back their supply
so prices will rise.
So here's what you
can look forward to,
the critical gasoline shortage
by late spring.
Only the end of the embargo
could change that outlook,
and it seems unlikely
the Arabs will relent.
Oil prices go through the roof.
From just under $3 a barrel
to $11.50 a barrel.
Oil-dependent nations suffer a recession.
The Western industrialized world
was shocked.
OPEC's decisions were seen as high-handed,
unreasonable, verging on blackmail.
But while OPEC seems to be
a powerful cartel with a unified voice,
its member nations are actually growing
more suspicious of one another.
Are they telling each other the truth
about how much oil they actually produce,
about the real size of their oil reserves?
And Iran and Iraq are about to collide.
Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic revolution
in Iran
worries Saddam Hussein,
who thinks the revolution may spread
to his country.
The Ayatollah regards Saddam
as nothing more
than a brutal, greedy tyrant.
In 1980, using planes and missiles
bought by their oil riches,
Iran and Iraq erupt
into a devastating eight-year war.
Despite that, oil prices
actually plummet...
at the very worst time. Why?
Because the war comes
just as, globally, oil consumption dips
and other oil states
are producing a lot more.
Meanwhile, after enduring
those gas lines of the '70s,
Western nations wake up
to their addiction to Middle East oil...
and start searching for other sources.
OPEC, desperate
to keep the cash coming in,
cuts production to keep oil prices high.
In the early 1980s,
they cut their output by nearly half,
from around 30 million
to 15 million barrels a day.
But oil prices still fall.
From almost $36 a barrel in 1980...
to around $14 in 1986,
because demand is dropping spectacularly.
OPEC's market share is slashed
from 49% in 1976...
to just 28% in 1985.
1991, and we're back
to the first Gulf War.
The conflict starts
when Saddam Hussein's troops
overrun neighboring Kuwait.
He claims they're cheating
on their oil quotas
and their oil fields
actually belong to him.
The Western allies decide to intervene.
They can't afford to stand by anymore
while the Middle East oil producers
rip each other apart.
The West's oil supply must be protected.
The US-led coalition is one
of the largest invasion forces in history.
As one peace activist noted,
"If Kuwait exported broccoli,
we wouldn't be there now."
Kuwait is once more
in the hands of Kuwaitis,
in control of their own destiny.
We share in their joy.
In the aftermath,
an uneasy truce emerges.
Saddam remains in power.
But everything changes
on a bright, blue, autumn morning,
September 11th, 2001.
- Let's go, guys.
- Right here.
The mastermind behind 9/11,
Osama bin Laden,
and 15 of the 19 hijackers
are all originally from Saudi Arabia.
But seeing as how that country is
the biggest supplier of oil to the West,
punishing the Saudis
wouldn't be a smart move.
Still, the US is hungry
for an excuse to use its strength.
In 2003, America's old foe,
Saddam Hussein,
has become even more unpredictable,
turning his oil taps on and off
as he likes
and disrupting oil supplies to the West.
When America gets sketchy reports
Saddam might also have
weapons of mass destruction...
...they decide to act
once and for all.
The US launches air strikes
and a ground invasion.
In the aftermath, Saddam is found
hiding in a hole in the ground.
Three years later...
he's executed.
It appears America and her allies
are now shaping events in the Middle East
to their own liking.
But during wars and boom-and-bust cycles,
it's the people of the Middle East
who suffer most,
always facing uncertainty and danger.
And always in the background,
there is oil.
Prices keep rising,
and the Middle East is sitting
on more oil resources than anyone else.
In 2012, a barrel of OPEC crude oil
costs over $109 a barrel,
four times the price in 2003.
Ten Middle East countries cover
just 3.4% of the Earth's land surface.
Yet concentrated in this small area
is 48% of the world's known oil reserves.
Saudi Arabia has 17.2%.
Iran, 9%.
Iraq, 8.5%.
And Kuwait, 5.9%.
So OPEC continues to hold a tight fist
on the future of oil.
Or does it?
In 2008,
America's fracking revolution kicks in.
Fracking,
a nickname for hydraulic fracturing,
involves drilling down
into energy-rich shale
and pumping a highly-pressurized mixture
of water and chemicals into it,
releasing oil and natural gas
from the rock.
Thanks in part
to the success of fracking,
the US becomes
the world's biggest single oil producer,
out-pacing the nations of the Middle East.
But also, more and more nations
start turning away from oil altogether,
acknowledging the role fossil fuels play
in global climate change.
So where will that leave
the mighty towers of Dubai?
Ever since Middle East oil
was first discovered,
it has brought incredible wealth
to the region
and benefits and blessings
to the wider world.
But it has also brought
the curse of conflict, war,
and terrorism.
Now the region's dominance
in oil production is at a crossroads.
The modern nations of the Middle East
have never known a world
that does not covet their oil.
Perhaps, for everyone's sake,
it's time they did.
The opening shots of the first Gulf War.
A US-led coalition takes on Iraq...
punishing Saddam Hussein
for his invasion of Kuwait.
It's one of the most intense
air bombardments ever.
But this isn't just about standing up
to a bully.
It's also about controlling one
of the world's most precious resources...
oil.
Oil has brought astronomical wealth
to the Middle East.
What were once
some of the poorest countries on Earth...
are now some of the richest.
Luxury playgrounds for the super wealthy.
Five countries in the Middle East are
among the 25 wealthiest in the world.
The most profitable company
on the planet is Saudi Aramco,
Saudi Arabia's oil operator.
Its 2018 profits were $111 billion.
Yet the region's cursed by conflict.
In the last 60 years alone,
there have been five major wars
and five uprisings.
So, for the Middle East,
is oil a blessing...
or a curse?
In the last hundred years,
oil has transformed and shaped our lives.
Without it,
the modern world simply would not exist.
Thanks to oil, the planet has shrunk.
We travel constantly.
From oil, we get plastics,
which show up in everything,
from shoes to technology...
to medicine.
And when you think of oil,
you think of one place:
the Middle East.
There's just a handful of countries
all clustered together
that supply well over a third
of all the oil the world uses.
The age of oil in the Middle East
begins in the early 1900s,
when, after seven years
of wandering in the desert,
determined British geologist
George Bernard Reynolds
finally discovers oil in Persia,
modern-day Iran.
British prospectors found oil
in commercial quantities.
This was well number one.
In the following years,
the oil derricks sprang up
along the foothills of the mountain.
A year later,
the Anglo-Persian Oil Company is launched.
The timing is excellent.
World War I proves oil
makes a far better energy source
than coal for ships.
And it powers new tanks and planes.
Demand quickly grows.
From the start,
oil is measured in barrels.
The inspiration comes
partly from another valuable liquid,
whiskey.
Rather than reinvent the wheel,
oil producers just take
the 40-gallon whiskey barrel
and use that for the gooey,
tar-like substance.
Add two extra gallons for spills,
and there you have it.
So what do you get
from one barrel of oil?
Quite a bit, actually.
You get enough gas
to drive a car 280 miles...
...and a large truck 40 miles
and a gallon of tar
for covering roads or roofs...
...and a quart of motor oil.
But, wait, there's more.
You'll have enough petrochemicals left
to make either 540 toothbrushes
or 135 rubber balls.
Even before World War I is over,
Britain and France secretly agree
to carve up the Middle East between them.
And it's all about the oil.
The Arabs are not consulted.
Fractured into tribes and kingdoms,
they are powerless to stop events.
The seeds of a conflict
that will last decades are planted.
But why exactly is the Middle East
blessed with so much oil?
It's because of how the surface
of the Earth evolved.
Way, way back,
at least 100 million years ago,
what's now desert in the Middle East
was the bed of an inland sea.
Microscopic organisms sank to the bottom,
getting crushed.
Over the centuries, they were
pressure-cooked into crude oil.
Eventually, the waters receded,
and the dry dunes of the Middle East
emerged,
leaving those massive deposits of oil
tantalizingly close to the surface.
Now everyone knows where the oil is
and why it's so valuable.
So when World War II breaks out,
the Allies make sure
Hitler never gets his hands on it.
The huge demand for oil,
both during the war
and in the years following,
spurs companies to hunt
for more black gold
throughout the Middle East.
Turns out it's everywhere.
In 1938, oil is found in Kuwait
and then Saudi Arabia.
In 1940, it's discovered in Qatar.
Oil is found in 1958
in the United Arab Emirates.
In Yemen in 1961.
And in 1962, Oman finds oil.
After World War II,
America's newly-thriving middle class
wants more convenience and luxury.
And, unscarred by the war,
America's factories quickly pivot
from making weapons
to churning out consumer goods,
increasing America's thirst for oil.
A nation's standard of living
surged forward.
But postwar France and Britain
start to lose their global influence...
and their grip on the oil supply...
especially
when Middle Eastern nations realize
just how much wealth
lies beneath their feet.
They want to take control
of their own destiny.
British influence in Jordan
is under a cloud.
Saudi Arabia
has been independent since 1932.
But in 1946, Syria and Lebanon
free themselves from France.
That same year, Britain leaves Jordan.
But America still needs
to keep that oil flowing.
Time to start cutting deals.
In 1951, America agrees
to supply Saudi Arabia with arms
if they'll continue to supply America
with oil.
The Saudi royal family
is soon rolling in profits
and weapons.
And the rest of the oil-soaked nations
in the Middle East sit up and take notice.
From Tehran, fanatical supporters
storming through the streets
in a riotous mob.
In 1953,
Iran's democratically-elected leader
kicks out the British after nationalizing
the country's oil fields
two years earlier.
There's a power struggle
to remove the monarch, the Shah.
The UK and the US are furious.
The Shah's a keen supporter
of their oil interests.
American and British spies engineer a coup
to return power to the throne.
Literally overnight,
the whole picture was reversed.
They reinstate the Shah,
who had flown to Italy
to escape the violence.
The stay of the Shah of Persia
and Queen Soraya in Rome
was of short duration.
And, from the turmoil of Tehran,
news came that the royalist coup
had been successful after all.
But Iran isn't
the only Middle East nation
in political turmoil because of oil.
Now the most dangerous crisis
of all: revolution in Iraq.
In 1958, another coup.
This time, in Iraq.
The army seizes power,
overthrowing the king,
a long-time supporter of British interests
in the region.
King Faisal, enthroned in 1953,
and his cousin, Crown Prince 'Abd al-Ilah,
regent for 14 years,
were reported to have been murdered.
The young king and his government
had committed the crime
of friendship with the West.
The coup ends British influence
over oil in Iraq
and leads to the rise of a man
who will later become
America's arch-enemy,
Saddam Hussein.
As the old colonial powers lose influence
and new states emerge,
the Middle East takes on
a new, independent spirit.
Oil-producing states
start working together
to protect the value of their oil fields.
They want Arabian oil for the Arabs.
In September 1960,
they form a new and powerful alliance...
OPEC, the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Its public mission
is to stabilize oil prices and supply.
In truth, it's a price-fixing cartel.
The first Middle East members
are Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.
But their new-found oil profits
aren't being reinvested in their people.
Instead, Middle East autocrats
use their riches
to spend lavishly
on personal palaces, cars,
and military hardware.
In one deal,
the US supplies the Saudis
with an air defense system
worth $1.6 billion.
But the flow of riches for oil
comes to a crashing halt in 1973
with the first oil shock.
The US dollar takes a nosedive,
and OPEC feels the pinch.
All their oil contracts are in dollars.
Flexing its muscles, OPEC embargoes
oil exports to the United States,
Western Europe, and Japan,
drastically cutting back their supply
so prices will rise.
So here's what you
can look forward to,
the critical gasoline shortage
by late spring.
Only the end of the embargo
could change that outlook,
and it seems unlikely
the Arabs will relent.
Oil prices go through the roof.
From just under $3 a barrel
to $11.50 a barrel.
Oil-dependent nations suffer a recession.
The Western industrialized world
was shocked.
OPEC's decisions were seen as high-handed,
unreasonable, verging on blackmail.
But while OPEC seems to be
a powerful cartel with a unified voice,
its member nations are actually growing
more suspicious of one another.
Are they telling each other the truth
about how much oil they actually produce,
about the real size of their oil reserves?
And Iran and Iraq are about to collide.
Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic revolution
in Iran
worries Saddam Hussein,
who thinks the revolution may spread
to his country.
The Ayatollah regards Saddam
as nothing more
than a brutal, greedy tyrant.
In 1980, using planes and missiles
bought by their oil riches,
Iran and Iraq erupt
into a devastating eight-year war.
Despite that, oil prices
actually plummet...
at the very worst time. Why?
Because the war comes
just as, globally, oil consumption dips
and other oil states
are producing a lot more.
Meanwhile, after enduring
those gas lines of the '70s,
Western nations wake up
to their addiction to Middle East oil...
and start searching for other sources.
OPEC, desperate
to keep the cash coming in,
cuts production to keep oil prices high.
In the early 1980s,
they cut their output by nearly half,
from around 30 million
to 15 million barrels a day.
But oil prices still fall.
From almost $36 a barrel in 1980...
to around $14 in 1986,
because demand is dropping spectacularly.
OPEC's market share is slashed
from 49% in 1976...
to just 28% in 1985.
1991, and we're back
to the first Gulf War.
The conflict starts
when Saddam Hussein's troops
overrun neighboring Kuwait.
He claims they're cheating
on their oil quotas
and their oil fields
actually belong to him.
The Western allies decide to intervene.
They can't afford to stand by anymore
while the Middle East oil producers
rip each other apart.
The West's oil supply must be protected.
The US-led coalition is one
of the largest invasion forces in history.
As one peace activist noted,
"If Kuwait exported broccoli,
we wouldn't be there now."
Kuwait is once more
in the hands of Kuwaitis,
in control of their own destiny.
We share in their joy.
In the aftermath,
an uneasy truce emerges.
Saddam remains in power.
But everything changes
on a bright, blue, autumn morning,
September 11th, 2001.
- Let's go, guys.
- Right here.
The mastermind behind 9/11,
Osama bin Laden,
and 15 of the 19 hijackers
are all originally from Saudi Arabia.
But seeing as how that country is
the biggest supplier of oil to the West,
punishing the Saudis
wouldn't be a smart move.
Still, the US is hungry
for an excuse to use its strength.
In 2003, America's old foe,
Saddam Hussein,
has become even more unpredictable,
turning his oil taps on and off
as he likes
and disrupting oil supplies to the West.
When America gets sketchy reports
Saddam might also have
weapons of mass destruction...
...they decide to act
once and for all.
The US launches air strikes
and a ground invasion.
In the aftermath, Saddam is found
hiding in a hole in the ground.
Three years later...
he's executed.
It appears America and her allies
are now shaping events in the Middle East
to their own liking.
But during wars and boom-and-bust cycles,
it's the people of the Middle East
who suffer most,
always facing uncertainty and danger.
And always in the background,
there is oil.
Prices keep rising,
and the Middle East is sitting
on more oil resources than anyone else.
In 2012, a barrel of OPEC crude oil
costs over $109 a barrel,
four times the price in 2003.
Ten Middle East countries cover
just 3.4% of the Earth's land surface.
Yet concentrated in this small area
is 48% of the world's known oil reserves.
Saudi Arabia has 17.2%.
Iran, 9%.
Iraq, 8.5%.
And Kuwait, 5.9%.
So OPEC continues to hold a tight fist
on the future of oil.
Or does it?
In 2008,
America's fracking revolution kicks in.
Fracking,
a nickname for hydraulic fracturing,
involves drilling down
into energy-rich shale
and pumping a highly-pressurized mixture
of water and chemicals into it,
releasing oil and natural gas
from the rock.
Thanks in part
to the success of fracking,
the US becomes
the world's biggest single oil producer,
out-pacing the nations of the Middle East.
But also, more and more nations
start turning away from oil altogether,
acknowledging the role fossil fuels play
in global climate change.
So where will that leave
the mighty towers of Dubai?
Ever since Middle East oil
was first discovered,
it has brought incredible wealth
to the region
and benefits and blessings
to the wider world.
But it has also brought
the curse of conflict, war,
and terrorism.
Now the region's dominance
in oil production is at a crossroads.
The modern nations of the Middle East
have never known a world
that does not covet their oil.
Perhaps, for everyone's sake,
it's time they did.