From the Jaws of Defeat: France, the United States and Middle East Oil, 1940-1948
From the Jaws of Defeat: France, the United States and Middle East Oil, 1940-1948
At its birth in 1924 the French state endowed the Compagnie Française de Petroles (CFP) with a quarter share of the Turkish (later Iraq) Petroleum Company. A joint venture between the big four American and British oil companies, IPC struck oil in Iraq three years later. In the interwar period France's shaky pretensions to oil independence rested on CFP and the access IPC gave the French to Middle East oil. Defeat in 1940 appeared to doom France as an oil power. Sidelined by its IPC partners, CFP was denied a share in the newly-discovered oilfields of Saudi Arabia. CFP and the French state weathered this energy crisis through a mixture of diplomacy and blackmail. Filling a gap in the history of the French oil industry, this essay presents a new facet of France's struggle to find her place in the postwar world order.
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Conlin, Jonathan
3ab58a7d-d74b-48d9-99db-1ba2f3aada40
1 December 2018
Conlin, Jonathan
3ab58a7d-d74b-48d9-99db-1ba2f3aada40
Conlin, Jonathan
(2018)
From the Jaws of Defeat: France, the United States and Middle East Oil, 1940-1948.
Journal of Energy History - Revue d'Histoire de l'Énergie, .
Abstract
At its birth in 1924 the French state endowed the Compagnie Française de Petroles (CFP) with a quarter share of the Turkish (later Iraq) Petroleum Company. A joint venture between the big four American and British oil companies, IPC struck oil in Iraq three years later. In the interwar period France's shaky pretensions to oil independence rested on CFP and the access IPC gave the French to Middle East oil. Defeat in 1940 appeared to doom France as an oil power. Sidelined by its IPC partners, CFP was denied a share in the newly-discovered oilfields of Saudi Arabia. CFP and the French state weathered this energy crisis through a mixture of diplomacy and blackmail. Filling a gap in the history of the French oil industry, this essay presents a new facet of France's struggle to find her place in the postwar world order.
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From the Jaws of Defeat France the United States and Middle East Oil 19401948
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Published date: 1 December 2018
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Local EPrints ID: 426781
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/426781
PURE UUID: aca6de7d-0c5d-4bd4-9590-03667180a852
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Date deposited: 12 Dec 2018 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:52
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