Oil Politics: A Modern History of Petroleum

375 Pages·2004·17.2 MB·English

by  Francisco Parra

OIL POLITICS
A Modern History of Petroleum

OIL POLITICS
A Modern History of Petroleum
Francisco Parra
I I
I.B. TAU RI S
Published in 2004 by I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 3BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
In the United States of America and in Canada distributed by Palgrave
Macdan, a d~isiono f St Martins Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY
10010
Copyright O Francisco Parra, 2004
The rights of Francisco Parra to be identified as the author of this work
have been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in review, this book, or any
part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otl~envisew, ithout the prior written permission
of the publisher.
ISBN 1 86064 977 7
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress catalog card: available
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin from
camera-ready copy supplied by the author
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments v1
A bbreuiations vii
Introduction
1. Cornerstone Concessions
2. Big Bang and the Growth of the Markets, 1950-1973
3. Fixing the Crude Oil Price Structure
4. The Growth of Competition, 1950-1970
5. Enter OPEC: The Early Years 1960-1968
6. The Tehran and Tripoli Agreements, 1971
7. The Struggle for Control, 1971-1973
8. Importers Take Heed, 1971-1973
9. The Crisis of '73
10. The Aftermath of '73
11. The Crisis of '79 and the Second Oil Price Shock
12. Backlash: Prices and Policies
13. The Development of Non-OPEC Oil Supplies Since 1970
14. OPEC At Bay
15. War in the Gulf, 1990-1991
16. Oil's New World
17. The Politics of Price and the Price of Diversity
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am most grateful to those who took the time and had the patience to talk
with me, some of them on several occasions, about the subject of h sb ook.
All of them have had great experience of the oil industry over many years.
Many of them I have known for a long time, and I am fortunate to be able to
count them among my friends:
Professor M. A. Adehnan, Nordine Ait Laoussine, James Akins, Abdul Amir
A1 Anbari, James Bamberg, Elltot Cattarulla, Fadhil A1 Chelabi, Manuchehr
Farmanfarmaian, Sir Peter Holrnes, Robert Mabro, Parviz Mina, Thomas D.
Mullins, Farrokh Najmabadi, Fuad Rouhani, Ian Seymour, Ian Skeet, Sir
David Steel, G. Campbell Wathns, Shaikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani.
My brother, Altrio A. Parra, gave me invaluable advice throughout.
I could not have written thls book without hundreds of contacts over the past
fifty years with others, friends and acquaintances, in oil companies,
governments, intemationd organizations, universities, and consultancies.
Such merit as it has is due to them more than me.
Francisco R. Parra
[email protected]
East Orleans, Mass.
ABBREVIATIONS
bd barrels per day
kbd thousand barrels per day
mbd d o nb arrels per day
MT metric tons
LNG liquefied natural gas
NGLs natural gas liquids
ADPC Abu Dhabi Petroleum Company
AGIP Azienda Generale di Petrolio
AIOC Anglo Iranian Oil Company
Aminoil American Independent Oil Company
ANS Alaska North Slope
ANWR Arctic National Wildhfe Refuge
AOC Arabian Oil Company
API American Petroleum Institute
Aramco Arabian American Oil Company
BP British Petroleum Company
BPC Basra Petroleum Company
BNOC British National Oil Corporation
CALTEX California Texas Oil Company
CIEC Conference on the International Economic Order
CFP Compagnie Francaise des Petroles
CPE Centrally Planned Economy
E&P Exploration and Production (agreements)
EC European Communities
ECA Economic Cooperation Ahnistration
ECE Economic Commission for Europe (U.N.)
ECSC European Coal and Steel Community
EEC European Economic Community
EN1 Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi
E M F Entreprise de Recherches et d'ActivitCs PCtrolii.res
FSU Former Soviet Union
FTC Federal Trade Commission
GAm General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs
GAO General Accounting Office
viii
GCC Gulf Cooperation Council
GSP Government Selling Price (same as OSP)
International Court of Justice
1C J
IEA International Energy Agency
IPC Iraq Petroleum Company
IPE International Petroleum Exchange
IPEC Independent Petroleum Exporting Countries
JNOC Japan National Oil Corporation
JPDC Japan Petroleum Development Corporation
JPTC Japan Petroleum Trading Company
KOC Kuwait Oil Company
LDC Less Developed Counuy
MNC Multinational Corporatio~s
The abbreviation is used to denote the Hearings and
Report of the Subcommittee on Multinational
Corporations of the US Senate's Committee on Foreign
Relations.
W C Mosul Petroleum Company
MSA Mutual Security Agency
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
NIOC National Iranian Oil Company
NPC National Petroleum Council
NYMEX New York Mercantile Exchange
OCS Outer Continental Shelf
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development
OPA Office of Price Administration
OPEC Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
OSP Official Sehng Price
PDVSA Petroleos de Venezuela S.A.
Pirinc Petroleum Industry Research Inc.
PRT Petroleum Revenue Tax
SAG Saudi Arabian Government
SIRIP Socittt Irano-Italienne des Pttroles
SNEA Socittt: Nationale Elf Aquitaine
SNPA Socitti Nationale des Pttroles d1Aquitaine
SPR Strategic Petroleum Reserve
STANVAC Standard Vacuum Oil Company
TAPLINE Trans Arabian Pipeline
TIPRO Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Assoc.
TPC Turkish Petroleum Company
P E R Total Primary Energy Requirements
TRC Texas Railroad Commission
UAE United Arab Emirates
UNCTAD United Nations Conference for Trade and Development
UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organisation
UNRRA United Nations Refugee Relief Association
USMC U.S. Maritime Commission
WSAG Washington Special Action Group
ws
Worldscale
MEES Middle East Economic Survey
OGJ Oil & Gas Journal
PIW Petroleum Intekgence Weekly
PE Petroleum Economist
PPS Petroleum Press Service