Oil industry from its very beginning was conducive to become a global industry. Oil is easier to transport over long distances than coal or later natural gas. The oil majors in that context formed an oligopoly and then ultimately what was essentially a cartel. Then my other argument would be that the creation of this very small group of international oil companies basically represented the emergence of petrol capital.
Featuring Giuliano Garavini on his book The Rise and Fall of OPEC in the Twentieth Century. The first of a two-part series on the 20th-century history of petrostates, petrocapitalists, and the world system.
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