The Secret of the Seven Sisters
Last updated: 12 April 2013



A four-part series that reveals how a secret pact formed a cartel that controls the world's oil.
On August 28, 1928, in the Scottish highlands, began the secret story of oil.

Three men had an appointment at Achnacarry Castle - a Dutchman, an American and an Englishman.

The Dutchman was Henry Deterding, a man nicknamed the Napoleon of Oil, having exploited a find in Sumatra. He joined forces with a rich ship owner and painted Shell salesman and together the two men founded Royal Dutch Shell.

The American was Walter C. Teagle and he represents the Standard Oil Company, founded by John D. Rockefeller at the age of 31 - the future Exxon. Oil wells, transport, refining and distribution of oil - everything is controlled by Standard oil.

The Englishman, Sir John Cadman, was the director of the Anglo-Persian oil Company, soon to become BP. On the initiative of a young Winston Churchill, the British government had taken a stake in BP and the Royal Navy switched its fuel from coal to oil. With fuel-hungry ships, planes and tanks, oil became "the blood of every battle".

The new automobile industry was developing fast, and the Ford T was selling by the million. The world was thirsty for oil, and companies were waging a merciless contest but the competition was making the market unstable.

That August night, the three men decided to stop fighting and to start sharing out the world's oil. Their vision was that production zones, transport costs, sales prices - everything would be agreed and shared. And so began a great cartel, whose purpose was to dominate the world, by controlling its oil.

Four others soon joined them, and they came to be known as the Seven Sisters -  - the biggest oil companies in the world.

In the first episode, we travel across the Middle East, through both time and space.

"We waged the Iran-Iraq war and I say we waged it, because one country had to be used to destroy the other. As they already benefit from the oil bonanza, and they’re building up financal reserves, from time to time they have to be bled."

- Xavier Houzel, an Oil trader

Throughout the region's modern history, since the discovery of oil, the Seven Sisters have sought to control the balance of power.

They have supported monarchies in Iran and Saudi Arabia, opposed the creation of OPEC, profiting from the Iran-Iraq war, leading to the ultimate destruction of Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

The Seven Sisters were always present, and almost always came out on top.

Since that notorious meeting at Achnacarry Castle on August 28, 1928, they have never ceased to plot, to plan and to scheme.

At the end of the 1960s, the Seven Sisters, the major oil companies, controlled 85 percent of the world's oil reserves. Today, they control just 10 percent.

New hunting grounds are therefore required, and the Sisters have turned their gaze towards Africa. With peak oil, wars in the Middle East, and the rise in crude prices, Africa is the oil companies' new battleground.

"Everybody thought there could be oil in Sudan but nobody knew anything. It was revealed through exploration by the American company Chevron, towards the end of the 70s. And that was the beginning of the second civil war, which went on until 2002. It lasted for 19 years and cost a million and a half lives and the oil business was at the heart of it."

- Gerard Prunier, a historian

But the real story, the secret story of oil, begins far from Africa.

In their bid to dominate Africa, the Sisters installed a king in Libya, a dictator in Gabon, fought the nationalisation of oil resources in Algeria, and through corruption, war and assassinations, brought Nigeria to its knees.

Oil may be flowing into the holds of huge tankers, but in Lagos, petrol shortages are chronic.

The country's four refineries are obsolete and the continent's main oil exporter is forced to import refined petrol - a paradox that reaps fortunes for a handful of oil companies.

Encouraged by the companies, corruption has become a system of government - some $50bn are estimated to have 'disappeared' out of the $350bn received since independence.

But new players have now joined the great oil game.

China, with its growing appetite for energy, has found new friends in Sudan, and the Chinese builders have moved in. Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir is proud of his co-operation with China - a dam on the Nile, roads, and stadiums.

In order to export 500,000 barrels of oil a day from the oil fields in the South - China financed and built the Heglig pipeline connected to Port Sudan - now South Sudan's precious oil is shipped through North Sudan to Chinese ports.

In a bid to secure oil supplies out of Libya, the US, the UK and the Seven Sisters made peace with the once shunned Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, until he was killed during the Libyan uprising of 2011, but the flow of Libyan oil remains uninterrupted.

In need of funds for rebuilding, Libya is now back to pumping more than a million barrels of oil per day. And the Sisters are happy to oblige.

The second part of this special series can be seen from Thursday, April 11, at the following times GMT: Thursday: 2000; Friday: 1200; Saturday: 0100; Sunday: 0600; Monday: 2000; Tuesday: 1200; Wednesday: 0100; Thursday: 0600.


http://aljazeera.com/story/201344105231487582


It's airing live on al-jazeera for those who want to watch.

[img]http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/225/oldsevensisters2.jpg/[/img]

It's so bad seeing how these companies' policies in the search for oil have caused so much miseries for Nigeria and Africa.

I see.. Essex was my first thought.

I saw the documentary briefly yesternite on Aljazeera. So so Sad.

"They" never got love for us!!!

But do u know they also had a hand in Nigeria's civil (evil) war? Truly the seven sisters or harlots are behind many conflicts the world have seen, . . ., in the documentary they said elf instigated France in supporting the civil in nigeria because they lost out in Nigeria's oil, we as a country need to get our acts together rather than keep making the same mistake that have taken no way.

Naija I hail oh!

ezeamaka147:

[img]http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/225/oldsevensisters2.jpg/[/img]

It's so bad seeing how these companies' policies in the search for oil have caused so much miseries for Nigeria and Africa.

Nigeria and Africa abi the whole world. Now I know other forms of energy supply will never come into full stream until the world totally runs out of oil.

No wonder you won't find acts of terrorism in countries without oil...

vedaxcool:
But do u know they also had a hand in Nigeria's civil (evil) war? Truly the seven sisters or harlots are behind many conflicts the world have seen, . . ., in the documentary they said elf instigated France in supporting the civil in nigeria because they lost out in Nigeria's oil, we as a country need to get our acts together rather than keep making the same mistake that have taken no way.

How can you chalk up Biafrans demand to separate from those who sought to exterminate them to Elf and France, are you sensible at all?

Is it not on record that Mutala and other Northern military officers were planning to secede from Nigeria and form a country of their own, until Shell BP, scared of the fact that Biafra(Eastern region) won't allow her control her oil wealth, persuaded Gowon and the North to shelve their Araba plans and instead start "One Nigeria" plans, having promised to make them the care takers of the oil for the British.

Are you ignorant of the above facts?

How then can you come and blame France and Elf for Biafran war, when without the British poisoning the minds of Northern military, the country would have divided peacefully post massacre of Igbos after the counter coup , and there wouldn't be any civil war as we all could have gone our separate ways from then henceforth and developed as independent nations.

[s]

pazienza:


How can you chalk up Biafrans demand to separate from those who sought to exterminate them to Elf and France, are you sensible at all?

Is it not on record that Mutala and other Northern military officers were planning to secede from Nigeria and form a country of their own, until Shell BP, scared of the fact that Biafra(Eastern region) won't allow her control her oil wealth, persuaded Gowon and the North to shelve their Araba plans and instead start "One Nigeria" plans, having promised to make them the care takers of the oil for the British.

Are you ignorant of the above facts?

How then can you come and blame France and Elf for Biafran war, when without the British poisoning the minds of Northern military, the country would have divided peacefully post massacre of Igbos after the counter coup , and there wouldn't be any civil war as we all could have gone our separate ways from then henceforth and developed as independent nations.

[/s]


You support men who murdered leaders largely from the north.... a counter coup take place which made those who plotted the first coup to become greedy once again and claimed they want to secede from Nigeria ensuring a civil war. Lying has unfortunately become a major talent for you ipork. Didn't France support BEERFRAUD? Yes they did because of oil which they plan to steal from minorities from ss.