Colonial and Postcolonial Oil Politics in the Persian Gulf by Battal Doğan

Author:Battal Doğan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783031607806
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland

2.1 The Formation of Imperial Oil Policy

For British Empire, the transition from coal-fired warships to the oil-fired meant a shift from a self-sufficient source of energy to an almost entirely dependent energy source. While the British Empire supplied about half of the coal traded worldwide and had a de facto monopoly of the smokeless hard coal that had become the maritime choice of fuel, it had neither domestic sources of oil nor sufficient sources in its colonies.18 Consequently, the Empire lost its energy self-sufficiency leading role as a supplier, and thus the search for secure and stable oil sources became a vital necessity for the Empire.19 The availability of fuel oil thus became vital concern of the officials both in the imperial government and Admiralty.

The domestic demand for oil was still little and, therefore, there was no commercial supply organization in the Empire. The Admiralty supplied its fuel oil demand from the United States and Russia, which were leading oil-producing countries at that time and had growing domestic demand for the product. Dependent on distant foreign countries, the Admiralty preferred British-controlled sources for the security of its oil supplies.20 The problem Britain faced was that it lacked oil resources. The Empire was predominantly dependent on America, Russia, and Mexico to meet its oil demand, which was considered an undesirable condition in peace times and an impossible condition in great wars.21

The Royal Navy’s decision to switch from coal to oil is therefore considered a turning point not only in the making of the British oil policies, but also in the emergence of the British oil industry. The decision increased the interest and involvement of the Royal government in the business of oil companies, which became not only suppliers of petroleum products but also strategic partners.22 In other words, fuel oil according to the Admiralty was more than “an article of general consumption”, but it was “special articles of warlike material”.23 For the oil companies, the Empire became a very large oil consumer, a situation that brought both the private and public officials into close contact.24

These interactions and network of relationships between the Royal government and its oil companies led the latter to seek diplomatic and financial support to secure access to oil concessions.25 The Royal government, for oil companies, became an attractive oil market, a source of financial support and diplomatic backing versus of other foreign oil companies.26 Thus, the fear from the rival IOCs and the desire of the Admiralty to see the British oil produced by the British oil companies prompted the imperial government and the colonial administrations to seek for ways of supporting British oil companies to have the upper hand over oil concession diplomacy within the imperial borders.27

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