Al Jazeera announces four part series on Oil

Al Jazeera has announced a four-part documentary on the incredible story of the secret pact which gave birth to the oligopoly controlling the world’s crude-oil supply.

“The Secret of the Seven Sisters” shows how on the 27th August 1928, the world’s top oil moguls met in secret at a castle in Scotland to form an alliance. The Achnacarry Agreement marked the creation of an international oil cartel, whose members reserved the right to share out the oil market and fix prices as they saw fit.

The group which became to be known as the “Seven Sisters” comprised of Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now BP); Gulf Oil, Standard Oil of California (SoCal), Texaco (now Chevron); Royal Dutch Shell; and Standard Oil of New Jersey (Esso) and Standard Oil Company of New York (now ExxonMobil)., as the oil giants became known, made them masters of the modern world.

The four part series retraces a century of oil history in the light of this secret agreement, using reconstructions, archive, interviews with key protagonists and experts,” Seven Sisters: straddles the crude-oil map, and reveals the extraordinary and gigantic theft perpetrated by a few unscrupulous tycoons.

“The Secret of the Seven Sisters” is a story that continues to inform the ongoing and rising geopolitical rivalries in the world to this day and its connection to oil.

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• First episode of The Secret of the Seven Sisters will be shown on Thursday, 4th April at 20:00 GMT.

• Online Trailer of the first episode is available online: http://youtu.be/6qDrKtH5CBY

• Programmes will be available online a day after viewing on: http://aje.me/srOWdf

• The Secret of the Seven Sisters is directed by Frédéric Tonolli.