The history of the oil industry in the 20th century is a fascinating one. The shifting dynamics of a geopolitically-important commodity that was, in many ways, shaped by international power politics and played a critical role in both World Wars is rife with intrigue, deception and conspiracy for those who seek to look behind the curtain.
One can argue that the history is well-known enough to be common knowledge. Certainly there are few living today who have not heard about how Rockefeller’s Standard Oil became an industrial giant controlling over 90% of the US market. There is also no doubt that even fewer people do not know about what happened when antitrust regulators split Standard into 34 new companies in 1911 with one of them becoming Exxon Mobil, which now controls a mere 4% of the market.
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