About the section
Dr. Amanda Furman’s bi-monthly column is published in the Wall Street Journal and is published exclusively in the Globes. In this column, she says, she “searches the past for the origins of today’s world”
Dr. Amanda Furman is an American-British biographer and historian. She wrote five award-winning history books and served as a judge on the Booker Prize Committee and the US National Book Award
The “Standard” oil company was founded in 1870 by the American tycoon John D. Rockefeller and three partners. They were so ruthless and ambitious that within a decade, Standard became a monopoly that controlled more than 90% of US oil refineries. By 1913 Rockefeller was worth $900 million, equivalent to $23.6 billion today.
Standard’s octagonal grip on US commerce was finally allowed in 1911, when the Supreme Court broke up the monopoly into 33 different companies. But this move did not bring an end to dark activities surrounding the “black gold.”
Trivia
1
Who coined the word “petroleum”?
2
Which oil field is the largest in the world?
3
Who is the famous American writer of the 20th century, who worked for oil companies?
For answers, scroll to the end of the article
The American oil tycoon who inspired the film
In the 1920s, the American tycoon Edward Doheny became involved in the “Tipot Dom” scandal, a governmental corruption case in the United States during the time of President Warren Harding (1921-1923). The scandal revolved around the secret leasing of federal oil reserves by the Secretary of the Interior, Albert Bacon Paul, after the President of the United States transferred control of offshore oil field lands from the Department of the Navy to the Department of the Interior in 1921. Paul secretly granted exclusive rights to Doheny, owner of the Pan- American Oil”, for the oil reserves of the Elk Hills and Buena Vista Hills Reserves in California, after the latter bribed him with $100,000.
Doheny was the inspiration for J. Arnold Ross, the corrupt oil prospector with blood on his hands, the hero of the 1927 novel “Oil” by Upton Sinclair. The book was adapted by director Paul Thomas Anderson into the film “It Will End in Blood” which won an Oscar in 2007.
Uses of oil in ancient Egypt
Although oil is responsible for many injustices, it has also encouraged the growth of human civilization. As recorded in the Bible, asphalt – a liquid that forms naturally in tar sands and marshes – was used in ancient times to seal boats and straw baskets from water. It also played an important role in the burial customs of the pharaonic Egyptians: the word “mummy” is derived from the Arabic word for asphalt.
For centuries, mankind has used oil in a variety of ways. In the fourth century, the Chinese searched for oil using bamboo pipes and burned it as fuel for heating. In the center of Eurasia, they used it to treat camels that had boils. By the ninth century, Persian alchemists had discovered how to distill petroleum to use it to produce light. The oil fields of Baku in Azerbaijan in the Middle Ages brought commerce and culture to the region, and not necessarily political oppression and backwardness, as is the case in oil-rich countries today.
The boom of the car industry through oil
The first commercial oil well in the USA was drilled in Pennsylvania in 1859, and it brought with it a variety of benefits. In the 19th century, about 236 thousand whales were killed, with the aim of turning their blubber into fuel for lamps. The whaling industry ended overnight after the Standard Company began sell a refined version of odorless petroleum. The availability of petroleum also allowed the automobile industry to flourish. In 1901, when a large oil well was discovered in Spindletop, Texas, there were 14,800 automobiles in the United States; Twenty years later, there were 8.5 million cars.
The United States is returning to being an oil exporter
After World War II, the supply of oil was not under the control of private companies like Standard, but under the control of international alliances like OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries). When the OPEC countries declared an embargo in 1973, the resulting crisis made oil prices more expensive by almost 400% .
At the time, the US was dependent on foreign suppliers for 36% of its oil supply. About two years ago, the US Energy Administrator announced that thanks to new technologies such as hydraulic fracturing, the US had once again become an oil exporter, for the first time in 75 years.
Being independent of foreign oil helps the United States geopolitically, but it does not solve the environmental problems caused by carbon emissions. Ironically, some of the descendants of John D. Rockefeller himself, with the help of the capital he bequeathed to them, are the ones who are currently leading the protest against the ExxonMobil corporation, one of the 33 companies that split from Standard, because of its dismal record when it comes to climate change.
Trivia answers
1. 15th century German physician, Georgius Agricola, who is considered the father of the theory of mineralogy (the study of minerals). The literal meaning of oil is “rock oil” (petroleum): in Latin petra is rock, oleum is oil.
2. Guwar field in Saudi Arabia, which extends over about 280 km (length) and 30 km (width), and is owned by the Saudi State Oil Company.
3. Thriller writer Raymond Chandler (“The Big Sleep”), the literary father of the detective Philip Marlowe. In 1922, he began working as an accountant for one of the largest oil companies in the US. A decade later, he became vice president of the company. In 1932, he was fired due to personal problems.