Scramble for Oil

For the majority of the first half of the 20th century, Asia was under direct or indirect domination of the European powers. The US was soon becoming a distant giant which had an option of choosing sides and also having its share of colonialism in the form of Cuba, Philippines, etc. With oil becoming an influential contributor to the industrial revolution US along with countries like Russia, The Netherlands and Britain got into a scramble for oil sources by the 19th century and early 20th century. I won't get into the details but plan to share some facts.

Standard Oil became the biggest brand in the US which roughly covered 90% of refining in the US in the early 20th century was founded by John Rockefeller, he with his shrewd business practices was able to create a huge impact in the oil industry history. Even at present three out of the five oil giants are direct descendants of Standard Oil.

Current day oil major Royal Dutch Shell is actually a merger of two oil companies one being Shell Transport and Trading a company established by son of a shell trader in London the company he named in honor of his father's profession. The other one was by the name Royal Dutch Company which had a solid presence in South East Asia. The merger took place mainly to put up strong competition against the US major Standard Oil. Even before the merger the Royal Dutch and Shell came together to form a joint organization which was called Asiatic Petroleum Company which grew rapidly in Sumatra (the island in present-day Indonesia), Borneo, Brunei and other parts of British occupation on South East Asia.

A lesser known country that formed part of the yesteryear USSR state of Azerbaijan's capital Baku was a significant source of Oil for Tsarist Russia. Oil flares had been common in Azerbaijan from ancient times with the Zoroastrian 'eternal flame' known to have been lighted by oil that gushed from the ground. Traditionally, part of Persia and hence it's linked with Zoroastrian faith (in India we call them Parsi). In and around the 1870s there were many small refineries set up and Baku was open for private exploration. However, later when Russia lost to Japan in the Russo-Japanese wars of 1904 and 1905 Tsarist Russia lost control over these areas. 

Burmah Oil a Glasgow based company started exploration in Assam and Burma around the year 1885 and later in 1901 they also built a refinery in Assam in Digboi. This same company was even involved in oil exploration in Persia (present-day Iran). Fun fact is the engineer who was heading the oil exploration struck a massive gusher of oil in the nick of time when he was about to receive a cable from the owners to wind up the project. So, with this newfound oil, the owners decided to list the Persian venture in the name of Anglo Persian Oil Company (APOC). Later, at the outbreak of the great war, the British government took over controlling interest of 51% in this company by investing £2.2 million. APOC was later named BP (British Petroleum) and they continued in Persia till the year 1951.

To conclude in Curzon's words, the Allies 'floated to victory on a wave of oil'.