Oil tycoon. Paul Getty III

There are 185 families of entrepreneurs living in the United States with a fortune of at least $ 1 billion, it follows from the American rating. The aggregate asset value of all rating participants is $ 1.2 trillion. For comparison: according to the data, this amount is only 1.7 times less than Russia's GDP in 2013.

The sample included only families "with a history": the magazine assessed the assets of not only individual entrepreneurs and their closest relatives, but also the "lateral" branches of the family: the DuPont clan turned out to be the most numerous family - 3.5 thousand people. At the same time, the rating did not consider entrepreneurs who created their business empire on their own, from scratch. When determining the value of assets, shares in various companies, real estate, art objects, as well as the amount of cash were taken into account. Assets bequeathed by family members to charity were not included in the calculations.

The total amount of assets of all participants in the rating - $ 1.2 trillion - is unevenly distributed among families: half of the fortune, namely $ 606.7 billion, falls on the first 15 positions of the list, while the top 10 has $ 529.9 billion. Almost two thirds of families, those included in the rating have assets worth less than $ 5 billion, and the fortunes of seven participants are estimated at the threshold of $ 1 billion.

The first place in the ranking was taken by the Walton family with a fortune of $ 152 billion. The Waltons control 51% of the shares of the largest company in the world according to Fortune magazine - a chain of stores founded in 1962. The retailer's revenue last year amounted to $ 476 billion, it owns more than 11 thousand stores in 27 countries.

Now the family's fortune is managed by six people - the descendants of the founders of the company, brothers Sam and James Walton. The network is not yet represented in Russia, although the company has been showing interest in our market since 2002.

The second line of the rating with a fortune of $ 89 billion is occupied by the brothers Charles and. In 1983, the entrepreneurs bought out the shares of their brothers, William and Frederick, in Koch Industries, founded by their father in 1925. At the moment, the holding is one of the largest private companies in the United States with revenues of $ 115 billion. Initially, the company specialized in oil refining, but over time it has become a diversified one. Koch Industries owns divisions for the construction of pipelines and the production of fuel, pulp and paper, chemical, electronic, food industries, etc. The company also has no representative offices in our country.

The third place in the ranking is occupied by the American "chocolate kings" - the Mars family, which owns the Mars company, one of the largest food producers. Mars was founded in 1911, and now his grandchildren - Jacqueline, John and Forrest Jr. - are on the board of directors of the corporation. The company manufactures a wide range of products: from famous brands of chocolate bars (Mars, Bountey, Snickers, Twix, etc.) to pet food. The company has regional offices in 13 countries of the world, including Russia: currently there are nine Russian factories Mars.

It is noteworthy that the group to which the largest number of business clans belongs is the food business. This category includes 25 dynasties, their total assets amount to $ 207.2 billion, or one-sixth of the entire fortune of the richest families.

Among them, in addition to the "chocolate" Mars family, there are families such as Dorrance (assets worth $ 12.8 billion, Campbell Soup Company), Gallo ($ 9.7 billion, E&J Gallo Winery).

Energy accounts for just ten of the 187 billionaire clans, while the world's most famous Rockefeller family ($ 10 billion) is not the richest of them.

Duncan dynasty founders of the oil and gas company Enterprise Products ($ 25.4 billion) were ahead of the famous oil tycoons in this category, and the Rockefellers occupy 24th place in the general list. In general, the clans of energy billionaires account for $ 52.9 billion, which is more than the $ 10 billion in the fortune of the Cargill family ($ 43 billion), which occupies the fourth line of the rating. Their food company, Cargill, manufactures a variety of crop and livestock products and nutritional supplements.

Five families from the entire list with total assets of $ 19.8 billion are associated with construction and engineering works. The richest of them, Bechtel ($ 8 billion), founded the company of the same name, Bechtel. Completed projects that the family-owned business has helped build include the Hoover Dam and the Channel Tunnel. The family, the founders of which made a business related to automobiles, is only one in the rating - it is the Moran clan with a fortune of $ 5 billion. Their automobile company JM Family in 1968 became the first distributor of Japanese Toyota products in the United States.

Today the world depends on oil: it sets in motion the mechanisms of international politics and economics. Oil is the key to understanding the main events of the twentieth century: world wars, the confrontation between the USSR and the United States, the September 11 terrorist attack and subsequent wars that the United States is waging around the world. This book is valuable because it gives the reader the opportunity to get behind the scenes of those events and learn the secrets of the powerful and ruthless international oil mafia that makes world politics.

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The given introductory fragment of the book Oil tycoons. Who Makes World Politics (Eric Laurent, 2010) provided by our book partner - Liters company.

2. The first drilling in 1859 and the rapid growth of oil production

The first drilling was carried out in 1859 by "Colonel" Edwin Drake. His rank is as implausible as the circumstances in which this event took place. Several investors expressed their belief that oil has applications, that it has a future ... and markets. They bought a tiny concession on a farm in Titusville, northern Pennsylvania, near the Canadian border. This is a village that has hardly been marked on the map. 125 of its inhabitants were in poverty. It was a lucky break for Drake as he disembarked in this remote area. A former locomotive driver who retired at thirty-eight due to ill health, he was hired by the concession owners because he was the only one who believed in the success and vitality of the project, but also because - a little known detail - that he studied to be a driller ... in France, in Peschelbronn in Alsace.

Almost no one could have foreseen that oil could be extracted from the ground by pumping it out, as is done with water. Drake was very stubborn. He began his exploration in the spring of 1858 with the idea of ​​an oil derrick: a simple joint of a shaft with a drill on a balance bar, driven by alternating vertical movements. He stopped mining in the winter due to bad weather, and when he returned to work, already in good weather, his results were fruitless. Annoyed by the loss of money, the Seneca Oil Company financiers sent him a letter in late August 1859 ordering him to stop drilling. On August 29, when this letter had not yet reached him, the fake colonel became a prospector who saw oil gushing from a depth of twenty meters.

Oil is cheaper than water

Shareholders of the Seneca Oil Company immediately buy up the adjacent land, but the news of the discovery spreads like a blast wave, and prospectors flock here. Renamed Oil Creek (Oil Spring), the area lives up to its new name and is an unpleasant sight - people are crowded among the randomly installed oil rigs, amid a sea of ​​mud, oil and garbage.

The early years of oil production illustrate an unshakable law that will dominate the oil kingdom for a long time: its market is based on consumption.

In the year following Drake's discovery, the price per barrel reaches an impressive $ 20, but the absence of large markets is causing prices to collapse quickly. A barrel was only 10 cents in 1861, and the price continues to fall, making oil a cheaper product than water.

Yet at the same time, a twenty-six-year-old former bookkeeper with a stern and unpleasant face creates his own company, Standard Oil, which will reign in the global oil market and make John D. Rockefeller the richest man in the world. Numerous oil producers and refiners have dug their own graves in wild competition that has created overproduction. The master of the situation, Rockefeller, rejoices at their ruin, declaring: “Well done, because if they produced less oil than they wanted, they would get the maximum profit from it; if they produced less oil than others required, no combination in the world could put this phenomenon in check. "

Among the victims is the Seneca Oil Company. In 1864, the company fires Edwin Drake, rewarding him for the entire $ 731. He spends the rest of his life in poverty - after a few years he dies almost completely disabled. The rise of Rockefeller and the fall of Drake illustrate yet another unshakable rule of the kingdom of oil: with one exception, that is, Paul Getty, everyone who makes up wealth in this area of ​​industry will never come close to a single oil well, but, on the contrary, will demonstrate complete ingratitude to people. who work for them - to the oil producers to whom they owe their wealth.

The world consumes 6 million tons

This incident happened to a wealthy adventurer living in London, William Knox Darcy. In 1901, he acquired a concession from the Shah of Persia that covered five-sixths of his holdings, or 770,000 square kilometers — an area larger than Texas. The two journeys that he made to this region were aimed at meeting with the Shah of Iran. Born in 1908, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company owes its success to the astounding tenacity of the oil producer J. B. Reynolds, who had to fight a hostile nature and epidemics, for which Knox Darcy did not express the slightest gratitude.

The British government is closely monitoring the drilling progress in Persian soil. Several Indian regiments are redeployed to Persia to guard oil fields and British personnel. For the first time in modern history, oil is becoming what it will always be - a strategic stake in the game, a national security priority, a military trump card. The first to understand all three meanings of oil was Winston Churchill, who at that time, in 1911, was the first Lord of the Admiralty. Speaking to parliament on July 17, 1913, he declared: "We must become the owners [of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company], or at least have control over some of the raw materials our country needs." On June 17, 1914, he presented to Parliament a draft which stipulated that the government would invest 2.2 million pounds in exchange for 51% of the company's shares; another agreement, the terms of which remained secret, stipulates that the maritime department, whose ships recently replaced coal with fuel oil, will profit from the oil supply for twenty years.

The future British Petroleum becomes a rival to Rockefeller's Standard Oil and Shell's Anglo-Dutch association. In 1914, the world consumes only six million tons of oil, and yet this mineral will always be the object of all the stakes in the game, while coal, which has remained the predominant source of energy for a long time, does not give rise to either passion or the desire to possess ... It seems as if the modern world has discovered, along with oil, some wonderful elixir that grants all desires and satisfies any appetite: a product that is insignificant in value, which gives enormous profits and is a factor in accelerating progress.

170 kilometers of paved roads

In 1900, newspapers hailed Theodore Roosevelt's "courage". He became the first President of the United States to drive a car, but caution humbled his courage. For three years, a horse-drawn convertible was his vehicle in the event of a breakdown or disaster. At the beginning of the century, America was the world's first oil producer, but it had only 170 kilometers of paved roads, on which 8,000 cars rolled with unreliable brakes, leading to numerous disasters.

In 1908, Henry Ford launched his famous Model T, "a car, according to his advertisement, whose color anyone can choose, provided it is black." In this era, it took not 18 operations to assemble a car, but 7882. Ford in his autobiography specifies that these 7882 operations require 949 "strong, healthy men, practically impeccable from a physical point of view", 3338 men with "just ordinary" physical strength , and almost all other operations can be entrusted to "women or adolescents." Ford adds coldly: "We determined that 670 operations can be performed by legless cripples, 2637 by one-legged, 2 by people without both arms, 715 by one-armed and 10 by blind." In other words, skilled work does not require a person completely: just a part of him is enough. Such a cynical statement allows us to take specialization to its extreme limits.

Oil in terms of

In 1911 there were 619,000 cars, in 1914 - 2 million and in 1924 - 18 million, of which 16 - in the United States. America is already consuming more oil than Europe needed in 1960. The dependence in relation to this raw material is not only economic, but also psychological. Oil has become a factor in the well-being of the population.

The United States is a country where everything counts, including cities. There, oil is at the very heart of the calculus. Here's an example from Los Angeles: more than 10 million inhabitants and more than 80 municipalities that stretch along the ocean in a semicircle in a radius of 100 kilometers. The scope, which, however, begins with infinite smallness.

In 1820 Los Angeles is just a community of 40 Spanish mystics. In 1872, this is a small, dirty and sleepy place, home to 5,000 people, with no port, little drinking water, and no mode of transport connected to the rest of America.

But in 1883, a rail war was declared: rival lines in the East are actively advertising to attract passengers. Every day, five trains drop off their passengers in Los Angeles. They come here to live, to possess, to mine oil, or to be deceived. In 1884 the population reaches 12,000; in 1886 it exceeded 100,000 tons. The annual transportation of goods increased from 195 tons to 200,000 tons. Real estate transactions jump from zero to 8 million a month, reaching 13 million in 1887.

A lucky find for a twenty-seven-year-old, smart and calculating young man who has invested about $ 3,000 over two years in the orange trade for Mexican workers farther north. Harry Chandler and his family, owners of the major daily Los Angeles Times, will gain power and influence in Southern California that will exceed all expectations. As journalist and historian David Halberstam said, "no family reigned in any region of the country like this."

Chandler does not contribute to the development of Southern California - he invents it, and he embodies it. The center of his empire is property. Land is bought at the price of the desert and sold at the price of an oasis. Since there is water in Los Angeles, Chandler is going to get hold of it. At the beginning of the 20th century, it brings water from the Owen Valley, 350 kilometers away, turning the scorched land into a paradise. He decides that the city will develop horizontally, because it is beneficial for the real estate trade. During the 1920s, the average American's dream of owning a small house became a reality in California: 250,000 new building plots were demarcated and sold to private owners.

Chandler bans the introduction of public transport: he believes in the future of the automobile and has an interest in selling tires, cars ... and gasoline, as well as building big roads. It promotes the growth of new neighborhoods, among them Hollywood, because it accelerates the development of cinematography.

Oil, cheap and abundant, is becoming the driving force behind the astonishing rise in production and the source of energy for the emerging consumer society. This is an upsurge that no government would want to expose to the dangers of the war that would break out in 1914.

"How are we going to get paid?"

Armed conflict immediately brings strategic oil reserves to the fore. Oil becomes not only a condition, but also a guarantee of victory: William II wants to compete with Great Britain in the field of energy and provide Germany with access to oil fields in Mesopotamia. He begins construction of a railway that would connect Berlin to Basra, passing through Constantinople and Baghdad, and will compete with the Indian railway. The project will be financed by Deutsche Bank.

This war, which will kill more than 13 million people, also, according to Jean-Marie Chevalier, shows that "oil is becoming the main source of military power, along with the transport of people and military equipment, the first tanks and the first military aircraft."

"How are we going to get paid?" - asks a chauffeur on September 6, 1914, when he learns of an order to requisition Parisian taxis for a quick transfer to the front of thousands of people who are to launch a counteroffensive.

"By the counter", - the officer responsible for the requisition answers him.

The Marne taxis provide an opportunity to stop the German advance, but the supply of the Allies depends on one country - the United States. In 1914, America produces 266 million barrels of oil, accounting for 65% of world production. In 1917, at the height of the war, the annual production reaches 335 million barrels, or 67% of the world's production.

The Bolshevik Revolution blocks access to the Russian oil fields concentrated in the Baku region. Washington supplies Europe with tankers, a large number of these tankers sinking German submarines on their voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. During this war, politicians are discovering one important circumstance, the thought of which will haunt their successors: it is necessary to guarantee the safety of oil supplies at all costs in order to ensure the functioning of the military machine.

Concerned Georges Clemenceau, on December 15, 1917, sent a pleading telegram to President Wilson, which reads: “The complete lack of gasoline will suddenly paralyze our army and force us to a peace unacceptable to the Allies. If the Allies do not want to lose the war, it is necessary that the fighting France, at the moment of the strongest blow of the Germans, have gasoline, as necessary as blood in future battles. " A year later, during the ceasefire negotiations, Clemenceau will return to this metaphor: "From now on, for nations and individuals, a drop of oil is worth a drop of blood." But this blood comes exclusively from America, which supplies 80% of the world's oil consumption to the Allies, while the Middle East - and especially Iran, a place protected by the British - provides only 5% of the supply.

Even more surprising, a quarter of all the oil consumed by the Allies throughout the war came from a single company, Standard Oil of New Jersey (future Exxon), owned by John D. Rockefeller.

"We need an aggressive foreign policy"

This man made his huge fortune out of refining and transporting oil, leaving countless small entrepreneurs to take risks in its production. His empire, created in 1860, will reign supreme for fifty-one years, until, by a decision in 1911 by the United States Supreme Court, it is divided into thirty-three joint stock companies, "legally" independent, for this reason that it discourages competition and uses illegal methods to eliminate competitors.

In the face of this decision, Standard Oil at the end of July 1911 decides to split into seven independent joint stock companies, which in fact turns out to be pure fiction. Standard Oil of New Jersey, the most important of these AOs, remains under the direct control of Rockefeller. Standard Oil of New York becomes Mobile, Standard Oil of California becomes Chevron, Standard Oil of Indiana becomes Amoco, etc.

In theory, they are competing firms, but they do not seek mutual destruction - they remain bound and tied by agreements on the production and refining of oil. Their governments collude with each other to set the highest prices and avoid a commercial war that would lead to overproduction and price drops.

The anti-trust measures introduced in 1911, substantially perverted, lead to a new monopolistic situation. The American government is all the more inclined to deal with the affairs of the Rockefeller company, because their interests converge on the same territory, moreover, the company has too neglected the "mining rent" that arises from the discovery of an important deposit, the price of whose products is below market prices.

Another thing is Shell, a major competitor of Rockefeller, which since 1920 has had branches in the USA, Mexico, Venezuela, Trinidad, Indonesia, Ceylon, Romania, Egypt, Malaysia, Thailand, north and south of China, the Philippines and Burma. Shell also acquired concessions in Central America and bought back Rothschild shares in oil produced in Baku, Azerbaijan, at a discount.

According to the powerful banker Edward McKay, "all known oil fields, possible and probable, outside the United States are either British property or funded by British capital ... The world," he concludes, "is barricaded from attack by US interests."

The Standard Oil of New Jersey understands that President Wilson's policies of isolation and pacifism threaten his future, and President A.K. Bedford says, "We need an aggressive foreign policy." These words, which will acquire strange relevance eight decades later, in connection with the policies pursued in Iraq by the Bush administration. This aggressiveness reflects a deep concern: since the 1920s, when one in ten Americans owns a car and others save up money to buy one, and while in 1929 78% of the world's cars are owned by the United States, the country has been haunted by a nightmare. possible shortage of oil. Just in 1929, the head of the US geological survey expressed the opinion that the oil situation in the country "can at best be regarded as precarious." Since that time, the largest number of oil fields has been developed on American soil.

The US State Department is becoming the most zealous supporter of the interests of American oil companies located overseas, and the first theater of action will be ... Iraq.

The end of the First World War presents a tremendous opportunity for redealing cards. Before the war, one consortium "Turkish Petroleum Company", which has nothing Turkish, except for the name, possessed Iraqi deposits. It merged the Anglo-Persian Company at 50%, Royal Dach Shell at 25% and Deutsche Bank, 25% of which had been sequestered from the first days of the war. Turkey, an ally of Germany, loses its membership in 1918, and the German part, constituting 25%, is transferred to the Compagnie Française de Petrol (Total) in exchange for other forms of compensation for war losses and for the permission of the French to install British pipelines in their mandate territories Syria and Lebanon.

Prospecting equipment sent by Standard Oil and Mobile is not allowed into Iraqi territory by the British authorities, while Shell is moving from tenders to concessions located in the oil-bearing federal territories of the United States.

Secret diplomacy

Today it is impossible to imagine the cruelty of confrontation and the atmosphere that reigned then. America's entire foreign policy revolves around the iron hand that controls Standard Oil of New Jersey and Shell. Numerous experts and renowned commentators predict a war between Great Britain and the United States in a short time. The war never starts, partly because a compromise was reached on the Iraq Petroleum section, which replaced Turkish Petroleum. Anglo-Persian Company (BP), Shell and KPP (Total) each have 23.7%, Standard Oil (Exxon) and Mobil each have 11.87%, the remaining 5 % falls to the largest intermediary in the entire history of oil, Kalost Gulbenkian.

In the Western world, which now seems to believe that getting cheap oil is becoming an inalienable right of every citizen-consumer, the big oil companies are central and have significant influence. But private firms should not be expected to take public interests into account. "A capitalist," according to Fernand Braudel, is above all an adventurer, capable of foreseeing and thinking on a global scale. " This definition refers to the actions of those people who reign in the world of capitalism. They no longer have enough support from their home state, and they are going to engage in secret diplomacy, which in the context of the post-war period will be fraught with consequences.

On April 2, 1922, the head of the Soviet diplomatic service arrives at the station in Genoa. To everyone's surprise, Georgy Chicherin is dressed “in uniform” - he wears a top hat. And in fluent French (the traditional language of diplomacy) he delivers a speech in which he tries to convince that the proletarian revolution is not going to plunge the world into apocalypse. A month earlier, the Allied military court, meeting at Versailles, determined the amount of German reparations at 226 billion gold marks, to be paid within forty-two years. The German government replied that Germany, even with powerful industrial potential, would not be able to pay such an amount. At this time, French troops occupied the ports of the Rhine - Dusseldorf and Duisburg - in the Ruhr. A week later, the Allies draw up a new note: 1 billion marks in gold, paid before March 31, 1922, or the Ruhr will be completely occupied.

At first glance, there is no connection between these two events. In fact, everything is ready for the creation of an alliance between the USSR and the Weimar Republic, two countries "rejected" by the rest of Europe.

When Chicherin, at the head of a representative delegation, travels from Moscow to Genoa, he stops in Berlin. In early April 1922 he was hosted by Walter Rathenau, Minister of Foreign Affairs and one of the most influential German industrialists. Rathenau is trying step by step to postpone the due date for war reparations. Without further ado, Chicherin declares that Russia is ready to enter into an alliance with Germany. The quickly drawn up protocol provides for "the establishment of diplomatic relations, the involvement of the German government to support those private entrepreneurs who want to trade with the East" and, finally, "the renunciation of all financial claims in relation to the other side."

The leaders of both countries, "outcasts" in the world community - one because of the lost war, the other because of the revolution, have a feeling that they can create an alliance between Russian natural resources and German industry.

In addition, some of those in power in Germany have an even more exciting thought: such cooperation could greatly speed up the restoration of the country's armed forces, which can avenge the humiliation of defeat in the war.

The Genoa conference left an almost catastrophic memory in the history of diplomacy at the beginning of the 20th century: it was very poorly prepared and the interests of its participants clashed with each other and were not linked in any way to common interests. This extraordinary diplomatic Babylonian pandemonium symbolized by Genoa anticipated the incurable impotence of democracies in the face of the growing danger that ended World War II.

An eminently ludicrous Genoa phenomenon that proves Lenin was right, as he argued that trade cooperation would increase antagonism between powerful capitalists, diplomatic negotiations are quickly relegated to the background by clashes between American and British oil companies!

"Union between bandits and robbed"

Immediately, the image of Russia looms, without which it is absolutely impossible to do economically, because during the revolution, 15% of the world's oil was produced in its mines. The Nobel brothers owned one third of the booty, the rest belonged to Shell. Since the moment of nationalization, the crafts have become the object of merciless rivalry.

At a conference in Genoa, under pressure from two companies operating behind the scenes, the US State Department and the British Foreign Office are trying to reach an agreement in which neither company would negotiate separately with the Soviets.

In fact, Moscow managed to stir up the oil industry in the West, in turn luring each of the companies with promises in order to quarrel them later. Now the Soviets are seeking to extract their own oil and sell it at low prices, thus exacerbating the threat that the entire world is shaking with fear - the collapse of the market out of control.

As the delegations prepare to leave Genoa, Baron von Melzau, one of the main German negotiators, receives a call at 1 am from Adolf Joffe, a member of the Russian delegation, who says he is speaking on behalf of Minister [Commissar] Chicherin: if Germany wishes Russia to sign a treaty with it. At dawn on April 16, 1922, both delegations arrive at a resort near Rapallo and stay at the Bristol Hotel.

The Rapallo Treaty does more than just "an alliance between bandits and robbers," as the headline of the London daily Morning Post elegantly states. He marks a turnaround in the post-war - or pre-war - world, characterized by the consolidation of communist power in Russia and massive and covert rearmament in Germany.

"Three hundred people control the West"

While the Versailles Peace Treaty reduces the numerical strength of the lower members of the German army to the size of Belgium, the secret military agreement stipulates that Germany undertakes to provide military equipment and ammunition for 180 infantry regiments of the Red Army and artillery guns of 20 Soviet divisions. Germany is also reorganizing the Soviet Baltic Fleet and handing over 500 Junkers to the Soviets (and in the very near future).

German military specialists come to the USSR to help train the command staff, while new factories are being built in the suburbs of Petrograd and in Samara, intended exclusively for the German army.

The USSR places its territory and its labor force at the disposal of the government of the Weimar Republic. The head of the German General Staff, General von Seeckt, creates, under the terms of an agreement with the Soviet People's Commissar for Foreign Trade L. Krasin, an organization called "Sondergrupe". This real parallel power is driven in this way. Only two German ministers know about its existence - Joseph Worth, who is responsible for finances, who is considered in many circles to be sympathetic to the Bolsheviks, and the head of German diplomacy, industrialist Walter Rathenau, who admits: “As a member of the capitalist club, I can say that three hundred people are closely related with a friend, determine the fate of the West. "

Another link in this chain is a private commercial joint-stock company, dubbed "The Company for the Support of Industrial Enterprises." It has a significant budget of 475 million German marks and two offices - one in Berlin, the other in Moscow. This company finances the construction of a plant in the vicinity of Moscow, capable of producing more than 600 Junkers per year.

In Petrograd, 300,000 artillery pieces will be produced, while in Samara a Russian-German joint-stock company is developing on a large scale the production of toxic gases and poisons.

German pilots are trained in Russia, and between 1924 and 1934 the entire elite of Soviet intelligence and high command will undergo training in Germany. Among the trainees is the future Marshal Zhukov, the winner of the Battle of Stalingrad, who in 1945 will deal the final blow to Berlin.

The last detail has been put in place: the Loman company, which includes 28 joint-stock companies and 32 naval shipyards, is building 250-ton submarines under the cover of the Soviet naval base in Kronstadt. Berlin uses them during World War II - mainly to undermine convoys.

The Allied Commissions, which monitor the state of affairs in Germany, inform their countries that Germany, in violation of the signed agreements, did not disarm. But no one appreciates the importance of Soviet participation. It will be necessary to wait until 1935 for some reports to reveal a stunning fact: Nazi Germany launches one submarine from the shipyards of communist Russia every week. Doesn't Germany's oil reserves seem paltry? But a substantial amount of Russian oil is being sold to Germany ... The two future adversaries will continue to cooperate for nineteen years, right up to the 1941 invasion of Soviet territory by German divisions.

"Swim on the ocean of black gold"

In these decades, the fate of the world, it seems, is only happening behind the scenes, in secret from public opinion. This applies to both military and political plans - the German-Soviet alliance is a striking example of this - and plans for oil.

An enthusiastic Winston Churchill said in the House of Commons in 1919: "There is no doubt that the Allies could reach victory only on ships that were supplied with oil without interruption."

Twenty years later, on the eve of World War II, the face of the market has changed significantly. The United States continues to produce about two-thirds of the world's oil, but thousands of American oil producers are demanding higher prices for their commodity, forcing large companies to seek cheaper sources.

Iran and Iraq, with their abundant fields, where extraction is extremely cheap, seem like just new Eldorado. In Iran, since the signing of the 1901 agreement with the Shah of Persia, oil owners have been dictating their own laws of weak political power, seemingly non-existent and completely corrupt.

In Iraq, a country recently created from three former provinces of the Ottoman Empire, post-World War I Americans settled alongside their British rivals.

King Faisal II, who was elevated to the Iraqi throne by the British after he was driven out of Syria, was forced not only to recognize the rights of the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPK) consortium, but also to give him a new concession, which in 1927 begins with the development of the Baba Gurgur oil field. , one of the largest in the history of oil production, allowing the Iraq Petroleum Company - to use Churchill's definition - "to float on an ocean of black gold."

In Iran, the 770,000 square kilometers of the British concession, acquired at a ludicrous price of £ 20,000 paid in cash, is followed by a transfer of 20,000 shares at a price of £ 1, to which is added 16% of the annual profit. The deals made in Iraq are proving to be far more profitable. An agreement signed in 1925 with the Iraqi monarch stipulates that the concession given to Iraq Petroleum will be owned by the company until 2000 and that the Iraqi state will charge a rent of 4 shillings in gold per ton of oil. The PKI illustrates the strategies and ways that large companies will henceforth use to dominate the global marketplace and set their own rules.

For the first time, two American companies, Exxon (formerly Standard Oil of New Jersey) and Mobile, are settling in the soil, or rather subsurface of the Middle East, alongside their British rivals Shell and the Anglo-Persian Company. (future power supply unit). These rival firms have fought a relentless price war until then, which has led to global overproduction and a collapse in their profits.

When interest is distributed in the bowels of the PKI, the oil owners change their strategy and, according to one of the main protagonists, Kalost Gulbenkian, "the open door [in Iraq] has never been so tightly sealed."

The Four Sisters, as the oil giants are nicknamed, are committed to enforcing control over production and limiting the effects of competition. Gulbenkian, the famous "Mister 5%", the only one remaining independent in the IPK, gives another figurative and humorous definition that sums up the relationship between the companies: "Oil producers are like cats: when you hear them, you can never understand whether they are fighting or making love." ...

Perhaps he would have expressed himself more accurately if he had said that they are fighting, making love, so the rivalry of those who are at the head of the groups, and their strategic plans contradict each other. Meanwhile, Shell's almighty patron, Henry Deterding, who in a few years will demonstrate his complete admiration for Hitler and Nazism, declares to his entourage: "Cooperation gives power." This principle will lead to fundamental decisions taken in the summer of 1928 in complete secrecy and so carefully guarded that it will take twenty-four years and post-war time to become partially known.

Exploiting "brotherly and more profitably"

In June 1928 in Ostend, at a conference where the main shareholders of the IPK gathered, it was decided that none of the shareholders could exploit oil fields if they were discovered on the territory of the former Ottoman Empire, without the consent and participation of their partners.

It remained to clarify one point, which causes fierce disputes among shareholders, since the fate of billions may depend on the decision made, as it is written in the biography of Gulbenkian. It's just about how to define the boundaries of the former Ottoman Empire. The controversy comes to a standstill when a brilliant idea illuminates Gulbenkian. He asks for a large map of the Middle East to be brought to him, spreads it out on the table and draws a line around the central zone in red pencil. “Here,” he says to his partners, “is the Ottoman Empire that I knew in 1914. I know its borders well, I was born there, I lived and worked there. "

The line, which is being scrutinized by shareholders, includes Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates ... and Saudi Arabia. Kuwait remains outside, much to the delight of the Americans, who are preparing to explore for oil there. This "redline agreement" will bring Gulbenkian more than $ 50 billion in annual income and make him one of the richest people in the world, as he receives 5% of the contents of each well that works within this line. As the oil historian Leonard Mosley recalls, there was also another secret agreement, and, of course, no one is going to inform the Arabs about it.

Two months later, in August 1928, Achnakarri Castle, a stately structure in the heart of Scotland, in the heart of the Highlands, is transformed, in the words of a Sunday Express journalist, into “an impregnable fortress that serves as a haven for a group of the most interesting silent the world ". Henry Deterding, founder and president of Shell, invited the presidents of Exxon and British Petroleum to join him for a grouse hunt. They are joined by representatives of other companies, including Melon, the banker and the main shareholder of Gulf. Teagle, President of Exxon, admitted much later that most of the talk among the hunters was about the problems of world oil production.

These conversations give rise to a euphemism: "the Ahnakarri agreement" means the creation of an international oil cartel, whose members divide the world. "In a democracy," writes Anthony Sampson, "this plan would be impracticable, hence the mystery that surrounds it: in fact, it gives a bunch of businessmen the right to carve up the market according to their wishes and set prices."

This system, cynical and unfair, perfectly illustrates the alliance of monopolies and will operate for thirty years, to the great benefit of the oil companies and to the detriment of all those from whom this agreement was hidden - from the producing countries as well as from the governments and citizens of the consuming countries.

You had to live until 1952 to hear about this alliance. The English economist John Hicks, quoted by Jean-Marie Chevalier, stated: "The best profit you can get from a monopoly is a quiet life." The oil giants thrive in secret, "exploiting brotherly and more profitably," in their words, the world's oil fields. Mocking and violating all anti-trust laws in the United States.

Thirty-one years before OPEC

The Achnakarri agreement does not remain theoretical in the United States, but in 1929, 31 years before OPEC, seventeen private joint stock companies formed the Association of Petroleum Exporting Countries, a sign of arrogance and unheard of disdain for their governments. They determine the shares and set the selling prices equal to the highest prevailing rates, such as in Texas or the Gulf of Mexico, from where almost all US oil is shipped. To this price is added the standard freight charge for carriage from the Gulf of Mexico to the port of destination.

British companies are joining this new order, which is generating huge profits from crude oil produced at low cost in Iraq or Iran. If BP supplies Italy with cheap oil produced in Iran, the freight price is charged based on this fictitious route. Companies can further expand this framework, which is already quite free, by "compensating" their deliveries, which helps to reduce the cost of transportation.

During World War II, the BP, 51% controlled by the British state (in accordance with the decision taken by Churchill in 1914), forced to pay for the supply of fuel to the warships of Britain and the United States in the Iranian port of Abadan at the price of fuel oil from the United States, increased to the limit. thanks to imputed settlement for freight from Texas to Iran.

On the eve of World War II, seven large companies, the Seven Sisters, jointly control the oil market, a situation that will persist until the mid-1970s. Exxon, Shell, Texaco, Mobile, BP, Chevron and Gulf, despite all the control and quota measures taken by their governments, will survive the entire war, making profits that have never been so high.

In 1945, Shell's wealth and influence surpassed that of the Netherlands. The American consortium "ARAMCO", consisting precisely of "Exxon" and "Saltex", displays moderate patriotism throughout the war period, places its funds in the American government treasury and establishes new joint stock companies in the Bahamas and Canada. ARAMCO has just settled in Saudi Arabia, a country that Washington is beginning to consider a major oil supplier. At the beginning of the war, in 1941, preoccupied with the delicate position of the allies on the front in the Middle East, Franklin Roosevelt is forced to force the American state to enter into the affairs of ARAMCO, just as the British government did with the Anglo-Iranian Company, which later turned into BP ...

ARAMCO opposes this idea, drags out negotiations, and since the first defeats of German General Rommel and his African corps became widely known, joint stock companies change tactics and dryly refuse to recognize the American state even as their junior partner. "They believed," writes James Hepburn, "but it is not unreasonable that government custody had become compulsory for them."

Alliance with the Nazis

Those who stood at the head of these groups, for the most part, had an authoritarian, hierarchical, and anti-democratic view of the world. To complement the definition of current US Vice President Dick Cheney, who claims that “God did not put oil in democracies,” it can be added that the Lord did not choose the leaders of today's oil owners from among the democratic people.

For two of them, the rise to power of the German Nazis acts like a litmus test. In 1936, the founder of Shell, one of the two most influential oil companies on the planet, Deterding, a Dutchman, becomes an outright Nazi and expresses his admiration for the Third Reich and the order in Germany. In the face of the "communist threat," Hitler is, according to Deterding, the only stronghold. His rule and some European heads of government are worried about the idea that Shell, due to its huge oil reserves, could play an important role in the war on the side of the Nazis. Increasing pressure is forcing Deterding to resign. He retires to Germany, to his estate in Mecklenburg, and becomes a confidant of the Nazi ringleaders, whom he is much less interested in since he was removed from Shell.

He often visits Holland, his home country, to preach on the benefits of the Third Reich. He dies six months before the outbreak of World War II. Wreaths sent by Hitler and Goering are placed on his grave, while all the German branches of Schell mourn his death.

The fate of Walter Teagle, patron of the Exxon, the successor chosen by John D. Rockefeller and forced to retire in 1942, was somewhat different. In 1926, Teagle signs an agreement between Exxon and the notorious German chemical company IG Farben Industri. In 1916, a newly formed company takes over the production of asphyxiant gases intended for rapid operations to "destroy" enemy trenches. Few people know that since the end of the First World War, the development of the company has been supported by British and American capital. A huge amount of pounds sterling received from the activities of IG Farben is stored in overseas banks, including Rockefeller's Chase Bank, Morgan and Warburg banks. In 1921, the factories of this company are working on the production of synthetic nitrate, intended to create explosives. In 1932, IG Farben became the most influential chemical company in the world: it controls 400 German joint stock companies and 500 commercial enterprises, has its own railways and coal mines, as well as factories in dozens of countries. The five hundred largest firms that enable Europe and the United States to prosper owe more than 200 contracts to a German firm whose researchers and specialists are more numerous and more qualified than anyone else in modern economic history.

Just as the German economy cannot survive without IS Farben, no German government can hope to survive without cooperating with it. Therefore, after coming to power, the Nazis, with their determination to turn Germany into an impregnable fortress, would not have achieved anything if they had not received the kind support from one firm that has not stopped funding the National Socialist Party since its inception.

"War is a transitory phenomenon"

Karl Duisberg, president of IG Farben since its inception, dies in 1935. He is succeeded by Karl Bot, an outstanding engineer who will receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and a seat on the board of directors of many American joint stock companies such as United State Steel, Dupont de Nemours and Exxon. In 1940, after his death, Karl Krauch, the Nazi leader, became the president of IS Farben. His appointment symbolizes the close collaboration between industry leaders and politicians of the Third Reich and the close ties between IS Farben, the Nazi regime and powerful firms believed to belong to the democratic world.

After 1940, Exxon, the first oil company in the world, continued, based on agreements signed in 1926, to exchange important strategic information and develop cooperation with a German company. Since Hitler's rise to power, Exxon has been supplying Nazis with patents for the tetraethyl lead needed to make aviation gasoline. In exchange, Exxon, which wants to start production of synthetic rubber, is developing this activity in Germany in order to thwart competitive American developments in this area, thereby sabotaging the efforts of the Americans and their allies to produce military-strategic material.

Spreading their collaboration more and more, Exxon and General Motors, then already the largest firms in the world, are teaming up with IG Farben to build tetraethyl lead plants in Germany. Supplied with this synthetic anti-knock fuel additive, the Nazi military vehicle is well equipped.

Such alliances with totalitarian regimes correspond to the psychology of a certain number of leading capitalists. Alfred Sloan, President of General Motors, said after the declaration of war: "We are too big to be embarrassed by these pitiful international squabbles." One of the congressional antitrust officials, Truman Arnold, defines the state of mind at the time: "What these people were trying to do was to view the war as a temporary phenomenon and their affairs as a permanent phenomenon."

Since 1941, the real shame begins: IG Farben finds itself connected with an extensive program of forced labor, millions of forcibly abducted prisoners are forced to work for the German war machine. It is in Auschwitz that the leaders of IG Farben are building a huge complex for the production of synthetic gasoline and rubber. And, horribly, the firm produces large quantities of Zyklon B, a gas intended for the mass extermination of concentration camp prisoners.

Charged with war crimes, the firm will be disbanded. Perhaps the allies in 1945 and managed to erase the name "IG Farben", which covered itself with shame, but its three subsidiaries - "Bayer", "Hoechst", "BASF" - manage to restore the pre-war empire, creating the world's most powerful chemical industry ...

$ 50,000 fine

In 1941, Exxon was twice indicted by the US Department of Justice, and some experts who have access to the case accuse the oil giant of supplying the Third Reich with production secrets of vital importance. But the enormous pressure exerted on the government by influential members of Congress close to Exxon leads to an amicable agreement: Exxon, which has made huge profits from its collaboration with the Nazis, is fined ... $ 50,000.

A newspaper reporter, in response to the decision, asked President Truman if he considered the secret agreements between Exxon and IS Farben a betrayal. The answer from the head of the American executive branch is unequivocal: "Yes, of course, what you want it to be." But this verdict does not interfere with the scale of the first oil firm. Fifteen years after the end of World War II, it controls more than a fifth of the world oil market and has 126 tankers, that is, the largest private fleet in the world, surpassing the fleets of countries such as Sweden, Spain, Denmark, and such a cozy house for profitable registration of ships. like Panama.

By 1945, American oil was playing a decisive role in the Allied victory, as it was by 1918: 68% of the world's oil was produced in the United States during the five war years. This figure silences critics and allows them to forget about the cynical double game, sometimes completely unforgivable, which these companies indulged in.

The difference between an optimist and a pessimist is that the pessimist is usually more informed.

Claire Booth Luce

I am grateful to:

Jacques Gravero,

Charles Urzhevich,

Fabienne Le Bian,

Nicholas Sarkis,

Anton Brenler,

Christian Pari

who, as always, could make out my hideous handwriting.

Foreword

On January 31, 2006, while a barrel of crude oil reached $ 68.25 and has appreciated more than 18% since the beginning of the year, eleven OPEC ministers, meeting in Vienna, issued a short communique. They decided to keep their production at the same level, despite the rise in demand. The explanation for maintaining the status quo seemed quite plausible: the increased oil price guaranteed them record profits.

In fact, the truth was exactly the opposite: if OPEC members freeze production at the same level, it is only because they are no longer able to increase their oil production, their resources, which are greatly overestimated, are rapidly beginning to decline; including the countries of the Arabian Peninsula - the leaders in the production of oil on our planet.

This circumstance is carefully hidden. Producer countries, oil companies and consumer governments - at least those that were informed about it - made every effort to avoid publicity - because of the shock that it could cause in the global economy and public opinion.

This clandestine decline of OPEC affects many other oil countries as well. The worst thing is that the real reserves deficit coincides with an unprecedented increase in oil consumption. It seems that we don't have the slightest chance ...

From now on we see the last act of the play, "full of noise and fury." The show began almost a hundred years ago and is always held behind closed doors. There is always an atmosphere of confusion and misinformation in the world of oil. We often forget that these raw materials are still a stake in the power struggle because of their strategic role, the low cost of production and the exceptional profits they generate.

Oil has provided unprecedented growth in our wealth; nevertheless, oil consumers have never had even a small amount of information about the true state of affairs in this area.

This book, the fruit of more than thirty years of research and varied encounters, attempts to lift the veil on the many secrets carefully hidden from the public. I realized quite a long time ago, back in the early 1970s, how oil was the focus of the great conflicts of the 20th century.

In 1972, and then in 1974, the two meetings I talk about in this book - with one of the leaders of the Nazi state and with the former British Prime Minister who was once Churchill's right-hand man - made it clear for me the decisive role of oil during the Second World War.

Incidentally, I discovered during the first oil crisis, 1973, that the distrustful and frightened West seemed to stagger, afraid of losing its power and its privileges. The producing countries looked victorious - a delusion as short-lived and unfounded as the fear experienced by the West. The first book, which I published in 1975, was the result of meetings with one of the perpetrators of the nationalization of the oil fields in Iraq, Libya and Algeria.

In subsequent years, I attended OPEC meetings, establishing contacts and meeting with the main actors of this "big game" - company presidents, stock traders, heads of state such as Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, the Shah of Iran, who later provoked his own downfall and the second oil crisis, with Imam Khomeini, who was in exile at the time and lived in a small mansion in Nofle-le-Château.

One of my interlocutors put it very figuratively: “The world of oil has the same color as this much desired liquid itself - black, which enhances the darkest sides of human nature. It arouses lust, inflames passions, provokes betrayal and deadly insults, leads to impudent machinations. " Over time, I became convinced that these words were true.

While we must prepare ourselves not only for the high cost of oil, but also for the scarcity of it, I continue to admire the persistence of this relationship.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Iran and Iraq, before becoming independent states, were nothing more than giant oil concessions that provided "exceptional profits" (in the words of one of the shareholders of the time). What happened to Iraq in 2003 — the American military invasion and then the seizure of control of the oil fields — followed the same logic.

Since taking office, Bush and Cheney have been more concerned with the energy security of the United States and Iraqi resources than with the threat of terrorism and the danger that Al Qaeda could pose. And this is one of the topics of this investigation.

February 2006 of the year

I found that the world didn't like to face reality during the first oil crisis of 1973. In a few days, everything seemed to be shaken. In Vienna on October 14, negotiations between the OPEC member countries and oil companies broke down. On October 16, six Gulf states - Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait - decided to unilaterally raise the price "set" for raw materials, increasing it from $ 2 to $ 3.65 per barrel.

Over time, such an increase seems negligible, but then, upon the decision at a meeting in Kuwait, the Saudi oil minister Sheikh Yamani told his colleagues: "I have been waiting for this moment for a long time." Ten days earlier, on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the Egyptian and Syrian armies attacked the Jewish state, unleashing the fourth Israeli-Arab war.

On October 17, as the fighting grew fierce, the oil ministers of the Arab OPEC countries decided to impose an embargo and spoke in favor of a 5% cut in production. The final communiqué, in Arabic, specified that “this percentage will apply to all months, based on the previous month's oil production, until the complete withdrawal of Israelis from the Arab territories occupied in June 1967 and the recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people ".

In a strange irony of Mistress History, both events happened at the same time, although there was no connection between them. The unilateral price hike stemmed from long and difficult negotiations between producing countries and oil majors, while the embargo was imposed, in the words of the OPAEC Secretary General, "solely to draw Western public opinion on the Israeli issue." This had nothing to do with the desire to raise the price of oil. But this will prove to be the most reliable means of raising the price to an even higher level.

On October 19, the embargo goes into effect. Saudi Arabia, the first of the world's oil exporters, has announced a 10% cut in its production and cut off all supplies to the United States and Holland for their support of Israel. The choice fell on the Netherlands, possibly also because the port in Rotterdam received large shipments of oil cargo from the Middle East. The fact that tankers no longer dock in Dutch ports has increased pressure on Europe.

On November 10, 1973, in Rome, at the office of the newspaper Messaggero, a secretary fainted. Sorting through the morning mail, she found a strange-looking parcel, and in it - a plastic bag, from which fell ... a human ear. A note was attached to this: “We are the kidnappers of Paul Getty III. We have kept our promise and are ready for further action ... "

The newspapers were in a panic. Nobody had any idea what this was about. Although - who in this city did not know Paul Getty III? The grandson of one of the richest people on Earth - the American oil tycoon Paul Getty I - was a dissolute youth 17 years old. He abandoned his studies a long time ago, left the family and entertained himself in places where the leg of a decent person had never gone. “It won't get you anywhere,” rumor hissed indignantly. But kidnapping? This is too ...

However, rumors about the kidnapping of such a famous dunce turned out to be the purest truth. The heir to the Getty Oil Company disappeared under mysterious circumstances on the night of July 9-10, 1973, and a ransom of $ 5 million was assigned for his life. At first, the police suspected that the Getty kidnapping was an invention of journalists. But little by little, things began to take a serious turn. It was about life and death. Who could have kidnapped such a tough guy?

The case was taken over by the chief of the operational-investigative department of the Roman police, Dr. Ferdinando Nason. And the first thing he did was to study the city plan, pinned with buttons above his table.

Desiring freedom, Paul Getty III left his mother at the age of 15 and settled in the Trastevere area. At the time, it was the most bohemian area in Rome. Dr. Nasonone has meticulously questioned the picturesque inhabitants of these neighborhoods. Fashion models, inferior actors, hippies and just vagabonds - they all went to the young Getty as friends and talked a lot about his lifestyle, which turned out to be extremely unattractive: idleness, drugs, debauchery. But not a word about the abduction itself.

It was natural to suspect that this was the work of cosa nostra. But the mafia only kidnaps those people from whom it will actually receive a ransom. And here - despite the extraordinary wealth of the family - the chances of receiving the notorious five million were very doubtful.

Paul's mother - Gail Harris - was the daughter of an American lawyer. Like many Cinderellas, she was unable to reap the benefits of a successful marriage. She became addicted to gambling, and after a divorce, she married film actor Frank Harris and moved to Rome. However, her second marriage just as quickly fell apart, and Gail was left alone with two children from different husbands.

It's amazing that Paul Getty I entrusted this impractical and stupid woman with raising a grandson. Probably, he simply did not have time to delve into this, and he limited himself to the payment of a regular allowance, which was barely enough for her and her children for a very modest life. It was unrealistic to get a ransom from her. It turns out that the criminals expected to pull 5 million "green" from Paul Getty I?

But if so, they had very little idea of ​​who they were dealing with. The oil tycoon was not one of the shy ones and not one of those who easily part with their money.

But few people knew about this. Unlike Rockefeller, who wrote a thick book about himself, Paul Getty I preferred to stay in the background. He never took pictures, did not give interviews. They only knew about him that he was about 70 years old, that his fortune exceeded a billion dollars, and that he owed his success exclusively to God and to himself.

The future billionaire was born into a poor family of Italian immigrants. His parents worked tirelessly, but for America they still remained outcasts. They haven't even learned to speak English properly. And the only thing they could give their son was a strict Catholic upbringing, which formed the basis of his powerful character. He received no education and began his career as a traveling salesman. The future seemed bleak, but he firmly believed in his star. He was attracted by the courageous romance of the gold mines. And even more - black gold. Oil.

From time immemorial, oil has been a jewel: the Babylonians used it as an incendiary mixture; the Persians idolized Zoroastro as a source of strength; the Indians smeared with it before military campaigns. In the 18th century, the French tried to use it as a lubricant, and in 1858 a phenomenal discovery was made at the University of Dartsmund (USA): kerosene can be obtained from oil, and it burns much brighter than kerosene patented in 1854 in Switzerland and obtained from coal! Meanwhile, humanity was on the verge of an energy crisis: stocks of whale oil and candle wax were rapidly approaching the end.

But how to get oil in the right quantities? Lonely freaks tried to dig holes in those places where oil seeped through the earth's crust, or decant it from surface water streams.

In 1859, unemployed Edwin Drake had the idea to drill something like a well for oil. For his experiments, he chose the vicinity of the village of Tytesville (Pennsylvania). The whole district laughed until it dropped ... Until oil spilled out of the world's first well. In the first month, Drake was earning $ 600 a day! A general frenzy has erupted around the Pennsylvania oil. People gained and lost enormous fortunes overnight. Drake was also busted; and on the bones of all these tiny producers the Rockefeller empire was built.

An even more dramatic story happened in Texas. On January 10, 1901, oil gushed catastrophically from the Spindletop well. The explosion could be heard for tens of miles around; the fountain of oil and mud reached a height of several hundred feet. This gold mine went to some syndicate from Pittsburgh. And the discoverer of this field was a one-armed man named Patillo Higgins (he was a lumberjack in his youth), who spent all his fortune searching for oil in the area of ​​this swampy hill. Experts considered his undertaking impossible; but this did not stop him from throwing away 10 years of his life and incredible for those times 30 thousand dollars - just in order to prove his case.

So the search for oil was a risky business, and Getty knew about it. But the very first money he earned from real estate transactions, he invested in oil. Into his own exploration, to which he devoted himself with all the passion of his adventurous soul

First there was Venezuela. A land of mosquitoes, dampness and tropical heat. But only there it was possible to open an oil field without special financial costs.

Getty was lucky. He very soon found what he was looking for, received a concession from the government and organized production. The liberal press spared no ink on describing the "appalling living conditions" in Venezuelan drilling villages: cramped houses, lack of sewage and hot water supplies. But Getty saw that the local poor, who worked in the fields, these conditions seem simply heavenly. For the first time he felt himself to be a benefactor.

He soon became the owner of a considerable fortune. But what to do next? Venezuela turned out to be too close for his ambitions. And most importantly, he saw an extremely important thing: "In order to gain some weight in the world oil industry, you need to have a foothold in the Middle East."

At that time, this thought seemed wild. The huge deposits in Iran and Iraq, explored in the nineteenth century, were extremely difficult to develop. British Petroleum founder William Knox d'Arcey invested £ 225,000 in the Middle Eastern oil fields and was on the verge of ruin. None of the wells he drilled yielded a gallon of oil. his oil well in Iran suddenly gushed a fountain 13 meters high. Bahrain's first oil was produced only in 1932. And the Kuwaiti deposits did not want to surrender at all.

And then Paul Getty got down to business. Having ceded the Venezuelan concession to Gulf, he invested the proceeds in the search for oil on the border of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. 12 long years in the desert ... And all this time, friends and enemies assured him that he was crazy.

Finally, on Christmas Day 1946, oil gushed out of the well. And it soon became clear that at least 15 percent of the world's "black gold" reserves are concentrated in the Kuwaiti subsoil. In total - 10 billion tons! Thanks to this miracle of God, a descendant of poor immigrants suddenly became the oil king, and his small independent company became an oil giant.

However, further growth would hardly have been possible if Getty had not turned out to be a surprisingly dexterous diplomat. In June 1948, he became the head of the American Independent Oil Company consortium and acquired in a concession half of the neutral zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. These lands belonged to the Kuwaiti Shah Ahmad. And in February 1949 - already at the head of the "Pacific Western Company" - Getty received the rights to develop the entire zone, including from Saudi Arabia.

Not only are these places extremely rich in oil, Getty also achieved extremely favorable conditions for himself. He would hardly have succeeded if he had not met the local emirs, who demanded that he increase budgetary allocations.

So, with the light hand of Paul Getty, Kuwait's big oil career began. In just 20 years, this God-forsaken country, in which there was not a drop of fresh water, turned into a modern Eldorado. In 1970, every 200th Kuwaiti citizen was a millionaire.

And Getty continued his activities in various directions. In 1954, his Getty Oil Company became one of the founders of an international oil consortium in Iran called Irikon. It was a lucrative business, but not particularly interesting for Getty. The deposits were already fully explored, effort and risk were reduced to almost zero.

Plus, as time went on, oil tycoon Paul Getty increasingly questioned the omnipotence of oil. Science in the 60s loved predictions; according to scientists, the colossal reserves of Kuwait should have been enough for ... 39 years. What's next? Will our civilization fall victim to an energetic winter?

These kinds of thoughts are increasingly plaguing the aging billionaire. Getty is investing heavily in the development of alternative energy sources. The mysterious, passionate heat of the bowels of the earth - this is the dragon, which he seeks to curb and put at the service of humanity. A man who knew everything about oil ceases to expand his oil business, and the geography of his interests moves from the Middle East to the Valley of Geysers in northern California.

His "fad" in these years is thrift. Stingy by nature (it is known that in the park surrounding his villa, he installed pay phones for guests!), Getty never used the services of a chauffeur. And since he was also observant, he summarized his experience in the form of a book that immediately became a bestseller. It was called: "How to Economically Operate a Car".

It would seem very strange that such a book was written by a billionaire. It is even more surprising that this billionaire is an oil industrialist, whose income directly depends on the spending of car owners on fuel. But Getty, even in wealth, remained the same modest, simple person who, from childhood, was accustomed to saving on everything. And this frugality was in his case a moral postulate, and not a desire to preserve and increase the billions earned. The richest man in the world - and that is what he was in the last years of his life - did not hesitate, he was ready to sacrifice part of his income, just to help people and teach them something useful. Paul Getty was above all monetary calculations.

Saving in everyday life, he spent a lot of money on the purchase of works of art, which became his main hobby in old age. He mainly bought paintings by old masters. And since he did not want to be a layman, he had to thoroughly study the history and technique of painting. These studies, coupled with his own reflections on art, resulted in a number of solid works of art history, which were published and still have not lost their scientific value.

And from his paintings he created a wonderful museum, which is now called simply - the Getty Museum (J. Paul Getty Museum). In 1997, 20 years after his death, the ultra-modern Getty Center opened in Los Angeles at a cost of $ 1.2 billion. The entire Getty collection moved there, with the exception of antique statues and vases, which are still kept at the Getty Villa in Malibu. Admission to the Getty Museum is, of course, free.

This was the man whose grandson had been kidnapped. Was he desperate? Did he succumb to pressure from the criminals who tried to humiliate and break him? No, no, and a thousand times no! Moreover, he had solid experience with regard to abductions. In recent years, Getty's grandchildren have already been kidnapped 14 times, but there has not yet been a case of him submitting to blackmail. “If I paid them money even once, my whole family would be in danger,” he said. - "None of my relatives could have left the house without being in the clutches of bandits." This time, he also did not intend to pay ...

And yet, Paul Getty III was released. 5 months after the abduction, the unlucky youth was found on the Napoli-Catantzaro highway: sick, exhausted, starving. In the last weeks of his captivity, he bombarded his father and grandfather with desperate notes: “They cut off my ear. Don't let them cut off both. Pay them! " The severed ear was taken to the laboratory. The analysis showed that the ear really belongs to the young Paul Getty.

After much hesitation, his father - Paul Gatty II - paid the required amount. Then he told reporters: "I intend to explain to the Italians what vendetta is." The released prisoner was admitted to a hospital and the investigators immediately began interrogation.

The results were discouraging. Paul claimed that during all these 160 days he was kept in secret hiding places - in caves and catacombs, in abandoned hunting lodges. That his eyes were almost always blindfolded, and he was guarded by some guy in a mask. In the mountains of Calabria, a big raid began: detectives tried to find shelters in which Paul Getty III was allegedly hidden. But no traces were found.

More and more doubts arose that the abduction could have been the work of illiterate Calabrian peasants. In favor of the "mafia" version was evidenced only by the cut off ear. But on the other hand, the severed ear is Van Gogh, old Getty's favorite artist. Isn't it too tricky for simple-minded mafiosi? And then there is the typically high society dexterity with which negotiations were conducted for the release of the young man ...

The police tried to somehow overcome this contradiction. It has been suggested that transnational drug trafficking syndicates were involved. Interpol was involved in the investigation, but this thread also did not lead to anything. Involuntarily, the thought of a grandiose hoax came to mind.

Gradually, suspicions centered around the victim herself; however, Paul was stubbornly silent. And he spoke only after he was intimidated by a strict judicial punishment for perjury and evasion of answers. And it turned out that he himself, always suffering from lack of money, and partly for fun, together with a group of friends - "golden hippies" organized his own kidnapping.

Of course, there was no punishment; but nothing could have dealt a greater blow to the family. The very core of the oil empire — its moral foundation — was broken. Two years later, Paul Getty I passed away, bequeathed almost all of his fortune to the needs of the museum he founded. What happened to Paul Getty III, history is silent. The real heir of the richest man in the world is the whole of humanity.

Not surprisingly, the wealthiest people in the world are considered the owners of oil assets. Which of them has the greatest fortune? Vestifinance.ru compiled a new rating of oil tycoons

The list is headed by brothers Charles and David Koch, who inherited this business from their father. Their fortune is estimated today at $ 68 billion. By the way, initially their company Koch Industries had only equipment for oil refining, but the brothers quickly expanded their portfolio of assets, covering refineries, pipelines, chemical industry, polymers and fibers. Thus, the company became the second largest in the United States. And their main subsidiary oil and gas company Flint Hills Resources produces more than 300 million barrels of oil a year.

For this reason, the brothers are strongly disliked by environmentalists, but it seems they do not care much. For many years, Charles and David have supported the Republican Party, being the largest representatives of the oil and gas sector in it.

The second place in the list was taken by Indian Mukesh Ambani with a fortune of $ 21.5, who also earned his capital with the participation of a wealthy parent. Ambani Sr. once founded Reliance Industries, which was engaged in the production of textiles. But in 2008, they also created a subsidiary company that today owns the world's largest refinery in Gujarat, with a capacity of 1.24 million barrels per day.

One of the founders of OJSC Siberian-Uralsky Aluminum, Viktor Vekselberg, received his first large capital in the metallurgical sector, after the aforementioned company was taken over by RUSAL.

Around the same time, the businessman became interested in the oil and gas sector and his holding company Renova became a shareholder in TNK-BP. Well, after Rosneft reached an agreement to buy TNK-BP, Vekselberg for some time became the richest man in Russia. Today his fortune is estimated at $ 17.2 billion.

One of the founders of the largest financial and industrial group Alfa Group in Russia, Mikhail Fridman, with a fortune of $ 16.5 billion, came in fourth place. He received most of his fortune after the sale of 90% of TNK-BP (at that time the third largest in Russia), owned by Alfa Group and Rosneft.

And finally, Vagit Alekperov, with a fortune of $ 14.8 billion, is the only one in the five who started his career in the oil and gas sector. Alekperov began his labor history as a drilling operator, then worked as a shift supervisor, oil and gas production foreman, and senior engineer. Subsequently, he became Deputy General Director of Bashneft, and then Deputy Minister of Oil and Gas of the USSR. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Alekperov created the oil concern LangepasUraiKogalymneft, the founder of Lukoil.