To boycott or not: How oil was at the centre of Japan-US oil relations in the perilous 1930s

To boycott or not: How oil was at the centre of Japan-US oil relations in the perilous 1930s

Scott McKnight
History

This piece analyzes dilemmas on the oil question from three sides: for Japan, accessing oil when almost all of it was imported by Western companies; for the oil companies, fearing Japan was using the oil that these companies supplied for empire-building; and for the United States, concerned about Japan’s expansion through the 1930s but was also reluctant to provoke Japan into even more aggression actions

Calm before the Storm: The Global Oil Industry in the 1960s

Calm before the Storm: The Global Oil Industry in the 1960s

Scott McKnight
History

The international oil industry of the 1960s was a period of incredible growth—in production, reserves, demand and countless new oil-based consumer products. However, beneath this apparent stability, the domination of a handful of Western-based oil companies who, for decades essentially controlled how much oil would be produced and how it would be sold, was ceding to a more diverse—and more unstable—international oil order

The birth of OPEC: How the world’s oil-producing cartel was created

The birth of OPEC: How the world’s oil-producing cartel was created

Scott McKnight
History

OPEC, the club of some of the world’s largest oil exporters, was formed in 1960 by five countries—Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. These countries, despite their many differences, were united on the question of asserting greater control over their countries’ most important resource and preventing further price cuts. This piece analyzes the factors that facilitated its creation