Blowback of Piracy
From The Sunday afternoon podcast with Greg Reese by Hosted by Greg Reese of the Reese Report
March 3, 2026 · 5 min
About this episode
The episode discusses the historical context of oil discovery and its geopolitical implications during the British Empire's expansion.
The first commercial oil well was established in 1859 in Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA. By 1900, about 94% of the world’s oil came from the USA and Russia. During that same time the British Empire was known as the “workshop of the world,” and was powered by massive domestic coal reserves. They controlled about 25% of the Earth’s land surface and population, but produced less than 0.5% of the oil. This became a major dilemma for the British Navy if they were ever to switch from coal to oil. In 1901, a 60-year lease of 500,000 square miles in Persia was bought by a British millionaire. With the support of the British government, this area, known for having oil seeps since antiquity, was surveyed for oil deposits by British explorers. On May 26, 1908, British explorers struck oil in Masjid-i-Suleiman. In 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was founded. In 1911, Winston Churchill converted the Royal Navy from coal to oil, and in 1914, the British government bought 51% of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Persia was now strategically vital to the British Empire. In 1915, the British promised Arab independence in exchange for their help fighting the Ottomans, but later excluded Palestine…
People in this episode
Host: Greg Reese
Topics covered
- oil history
- British Empire
- Middle East politics
- World War I
- colonialism
- energy transition
Keywords
- oil
- British Empire
- Anglo-Persian Oil Company
- Winston Churchill
- Middle East
- Balfour Declaration
- World War I
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Anglo-Persian Oil Company
Places: Persia, Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA, Middle East, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, southeast Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Haifa
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