Marking 50 years since the 1973 global oil crisis

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2023

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

To mark 50 years since the global oil crisis, we’re focusing on oil - from discovery to disaster. We hear from Dr Fadhil Chalabi, then the deputy secretary general of Opec (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) about what happened during the 1973 crisis.

Our guest Helen Thompson, Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University, explains why oil became the lifeblood of industrial economies during the last two centuries. We also learn how Kazakhstan signed ‘the deal of the century’ to become a fossil fuel powerhouse thanks to the Tengiz Oil Field.

Plus, why in 1956, not everyone welcomed the discovery of oil in the Nigerian village of Oloibiri. We find out more about the devastating impact of one of the world’s largest oil spills - when the Amoco Cadiz tanker ran aground off the coast of France in 1978. The wreck released more than 220,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea.

And finally, how an indigenous community in the Ecuadorian Amazon fought a court battle to protect their land from oil drilling – and won.

Contributors: Dr Fadhil Chalabi – former deputy secretary general of Opec Professor Helen Thompson - Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University Bruce Pannier - Central Asia news correspondent Chief Sunday Inengite – chief of Oloibiri, Nigeria Marguerite Lamour – former secretary to Alphonse Arzel, the mayor of Ploudalmézeau in France Jose Gualing - former Sarayaku president Ena Santi - Sarayaku community leader

(Photo: Oil rig. Credit: Fairfax Media via Getty Images via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	The explanation is the podcast from the BBC World Service that goes beyond the spin,
0:06.7	exploring the important questions about long-running stories and the latest global news an honest explanation of the events shaping
0:16.4	our lives. Search for the explanation wherever you get your BBC Podcasts.
0:29.0	Hello and welcome to the History Hour Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson the past brought to life by those who were there and in today's
0:37.5	podcast we're focusing on oil from development to disaster we'll hear the story of an oil field that transformed a country.
0:45.2	International oil companies are about to make the biggest foreign investment in Russia
0:49.2	since the collapse of communism. American company Chevron has found oil on a grand scale in the Republic of California. of the people of the Amazon who took big oil to court and why not everyone celebrated when black gold was struck in Nigeria.
1:08.0	They made so much money out of the oil they discovered what they have done.
1:14.7	Smacks of wickedness.
1:19.1	That's all coming up in today's podcast.
1:21.8	The world is currently confronting rising temperatures,
1:24.7	violent fluctuations in weather patterns and the resulting impacts on human
1:28.4	populations. The overwhelming scientific opinion is that this global warming is man-made and at its heart
1:35.4	is the burning of fossil fuels.
1:37.6	So the story of oil is central to the history of the 20th century.
1:41.6	Our jumping off point is the 50th anniversary of the 1973 global oil crisis.
1:47.0	That was when Arab nations cut oil production in protest at American support for Israel during its war against Egypt and Syria.
1:55.2	The embargo caused oil prices to rise dramatically and it changed the way rich countries viewed
2:00.1	their dependence on oil.
2:02.4	Dr. Fadhil Chalibi was Deputy Secretary General of OPEC, the
2:05.9	organization of petroleum exporting countries, and in 2014 he spoke to Alex Last
2:11.2	about what happened during that crisis.
	...

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