[electronic beeping]
[static fizzling]
[female narrator] 1991.
The opening shots of the first Gulf War.
A US-led coalition takes on Iraq...
punishing Saddam Hussein for his invasion of Kuwait.
[shouting]
It's one of the most intense air bombardments ever.
But this isn't just about standing up to a bully.
It's also about controlling one of the world's most precious resources...
oil.
Oil has brought astronomical wealth to the Middle East.
What were once some of the poorest countries on Earth...
are now some of the richest.
Luxury playgrounds for the super wealthy.
Five countries in the Middle East are among the 25 wealthiest in the world.
The most profitable company on the planet is Saudi Aramco,
Saudi Arabia's oil operator.
Its 2018 profits were $111 billion.
Yet the region's cursed by conflict.
In the last 60 years alone, there's been five major wars
and five uprisings.
So, for the Middle East, is oil a blessing...
or a curse?
In the last hundred years,
oil has transformed and shaped our lives.
Without it, the modern world simply would not exist.
Thanks to oil, the planet has shrunk.
We travel constantly.
From oil, we get plastics, which show up in everything,
from shoes to technology...
to medicine.
And when you think of oil, you think of one place:
the Middle East.
There's just a handful of countries all clustered together
that supply well over a third of all the oil the world uses.
[bubbling]
The age of oil in the Middle East begins in the early 1900s,
when, after seven years of wandering in the desert,
determined British geologist George Bernard Reynolds
finally discovers oil in Persia,
modern-day Iran.
[man] British prospectors found oil in commercial quantities.
This was well number one.
In the following years,
the oil derricks sprang up along the foothills of the mountain.
[narrator] A year later, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company is launched.
The timing is excellent.
World War I proves oil
makes a far better energy source than coal for ships.
And it powers new tanks and planes.
[whinnies]
Demand quickly grows.
From the start, oil is measured in barrels.
The inspiration comes partly from another valuable liquid,
whiskey.
Rather than reinvent the wheel,
oil producers just take the 40-gallon whiskey barrel
and use that for the gooey, tar-like substance.
Add two extra gallons for spills,
and there you have it.
So what do you get from one barrel of oil?
Quite a bit, actually.
You get enough gas to drive a car 280 miles...
[horn honks]
...and a large truck 40 miles
and a gallon of tar for covering roads or roofs...
-[engine revs] -[tires squeal]
...and a quart of motor oil.
But, wait, there's more.
You'll have enough petrochemicals left
to make either 540 toothbrushes
or 135 rubber balls.
Even before World War I is over,
Britain and France secretly agree to carve up the Middle East between them.
And it's all about the oil.
The Arabs are not consulted.
But they're fractured into tribes and kingdoms,
so powerless to stop events.
The seeds of a conflict that will last decades are planted.
Especially as, in the years between the two world wars,
more oil is discovered in the region.
But why exactly is the Middle East blessed with so much oil?
Way, way back, at least 100 million years ago,
what's now desert in the Middle East was the bed of an inland sea.
Microscopic organisms sank to the bottom, getting crushed.
Over the centuries, they were pressure-cooked into crude oil.
Eventually, the waters receded,
and the dry dunes of the Middle East emerged,
leaving those massive deposits of oil tantalizingly close to the surface.
Now everyone knows where the oil is and why it's so valuable.
So when World War II breaks out,
the Allies make sure Hitler never gets his hands on it.
The huge demand for oil,
both during the war and in the years following,
spurs companies to hunt for more black gold
throughout the Middle East.
Turns out it's everywhere.
In 1938, oil is found in Kuwait and then Saudi Arabia.
In 1940, it's discovered in Qatar.
Oil is found in 1958 in the United Arab Emirates.
In Yemen in 1961.
And in 1962, Oman finds oil.
[bubbling]
[rock 'n' roll music playing]
[narrator] After World War II,
America's newly-thriving middle class wants more convenience and luxury.
And, unscarred by the war,
America's factories quickly pivot from making weapons
to churning out consumer goods,
increasing America's thirst for oil.
[man] A nation's standard of living surged forward.
[narrator] But postwar France and Britain start to lose their global influence...
and their grip on the oil supply...
especially when Middle Eastern nations realize
just how much wealth lies beneath their feet.
[machine guns firing]
They want to take control of their own destiny.
[explosions]
[man] British influence in Jordan is under a cloud.
[horn playing]
[narrator] Saudi Arabia formed its own Kingdom back in 1932.
In 1946, Syria and Lebanon free themselves from France.
That same year, Britain leaves Jordan.
But America still needs to keep that oil flowing.
Time to start cutting deals.
In 1951, America agrees to supply Saudi Arabia with arms
if they'll continue to supply America with oil.
The Saudi royal family is soon rolling in profits
and weapons.
And the rest of the oil-soaked nations in the Middle East sit up and take notice.
[fanfare playing]
[man] From Tehran, fanatical supporters
storming through the streets in a riotous mob.
[narrator] In 1953, Iran's democratically-elected leader
kicks out the British after nationalizing the country's oil fields
two years earlier.
[crowd clamoring]
There's a power struggle to remove the monarch, the Shah.
The UK and the US are furious.
The Shah's a keen supporter of their oil interests.
American and British spies engineer a coup to return power to the throne.
[man] Literally overnight, the whole picture was reversed.
[shouting]
[narrator] They reinstate the Shah,
who had flown to Italy to escape the violence.
[man] The stay of the Shah of Persia and Queen Soraya in Rome
was of short duration.
And, from the turmoil of Tehran,
news came that the royalist coup had been successful after all.
[narrator] But Iran isn't the only Middle East nation
in political turmoil because of oil.
[man] Now the most dangerous crisis of all: revolution in Iraq.
[narrator] In 1958, another coup.
This time, in Iraq.
The army seizes power, overthrowing the king,
a long-time supporter of British interests in the region.
[man] King Faisal, enthroned in 1953,
and his cousin, Crown Prince 'Abd al-Ilah, regent for 14 years,
were reported to have been murdered.
[applauding]
The young king and his government
had committed the crime of friendship with the West.
[narrator] The coup ends British influence over oil in Iraq
and leads to the rise of a man
who will later become America's arch-enemy,
Saddam Hussein.
[cameras clicking]
As the old colonial powers lose influence and new states emerge,
the Middle East takes on a new, independent spirit.
Oil-producing states start working together
to protect the value of their oil fields.
They want Arabian oil for the Arabs.
In September 1960, they form a new and powerful alliance...
OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Its public mission is to stabilize oil prices and supply.
In truth, it's a price-fixing cartel.
The first Middle East members are Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.
But their new-found oil profits aren't being reinvested in their people.
Instead, Middle East autocrats use their riches
to spend lavishly on personal palaces, cars,
and military hardware.
In one deal,
the US supplies the Saudis with an air defense system
worth $1.6 billion.
But the flow of riches for oil comes to a crashing halt in 1973
with the first oil shock.
The US dollar takes a nosedive,
and OPEC feels the pinch.
All their oil contracts are in dollars.
Flexing its muscles, OPEC embargoes oil exports to the United States,
Western Europe, and Japan,
drastically cutting back their supply so prices will rise.
[man] So here's what you can look forward to,
the critical gasoline shortage by late spring.
Only the end of the embargo could change that outlook,
and it seems unlikely the Arabs will relent.
[narrator] Oil prices go through the roof.
From just under $3 a barrel to $11.50 a barrel.
Oil-dependent nations suffer a recession.
[man] The Western industrialized world was shocked.
OPEC's decisions were seen as high-handed, unreasonable, verging on blackmail.
[narrator] But while OPEC seems to be a powerful cartel with a unified voice,
its member nations are actually growing more suspicious of one another.
Are they telling each other the truth about how much oil they actually produce,
about the real size of their oil reserves?
And Iran and Iraq are about to collide.
[crowd chanting]
Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic revolution in Iran
worries Saddam Hussein,
who thinks the revolution may spread to his country.
The Ayatollah regards Saddam
as nothing more than a brutal, greedy tyrant.
In 1980, using planes and missiles bought by their oil riches,
Iran and Iraq erupt into a devastating eight-year war.
Despite that, oil prices actually plummet...
at the very worst time. Why?
Because the war comes just as, globally, oil consumption dips
and other oil states are producing a lot more.
Meanwhile, after enduring those gas lines of the '70s,
Western nations wake up to their addiction to Middle East oil...
and start searching for other sources.
OPEC, desperate to keep the cash coming in,
cuts production to keep oil prices high.
In the early 1980s, they cut their output by nearly half,
from around 30 million to 15 million barrels a day.
But oil prices still fall.
From almost $36 a barrel in 1980...
to around $14 in 1986,
because demand is dropping spectacularly.
OPEC's market share is slashed from 49% in 1976...
to just 28% in 1985.
[soldiers chanting]
1991, and we're back to the first Gulf War.
The conflict starts when Saddam Hussein's troops
overrun neighboring Kuwait.
He claims they're cheating on their oil quotas
and their oil fields actually belong to him.
The Western allies decide to intervene.
They can't afford to stand by anymore
while the Middle East oil producers rip each other apart.
The West's oil supply must be protected.
The US-led coalition is one of the largest invasion forces in history.
As one peace activist noted,
"If Kuwait exported broccoli, we wouldn't be there now."
Kuwait is once more in the hands of Kuwaitis,
in control of their own destiny.
We share in their joy.
[narrator] In the aftermath, an uneasy truce emerges.
Saddam remains in power.
But everything changes on a bright, blue, autumn morning,
September the 11th, 2001.
[indistinct shouting]
-[man 1] Let's go, guys. -[man 2] Right here.
[narrator] The mastermind behind 9/11, Osama bin Laden,
and 15 of the 19 hijackers are all originally from Saudi Arabia.
But seeing as how that country is the biggest supplier of oil to the West,
punishing the Saudis wouldn't be a smart move.
Still, the US is hungry for an excuse to use its strength.
In 2003, America's old foe, Saddam Hussein,
has become even more unpredictable,
turning his oil taps on and off as he likes
and disrupting oil supplies to the West.
When America gets sketchy reports
Saddam might also have weapons of mass destruction...
[upbeat instrumental music playing]
...they decide to act once and for all.
The US launches air strikes and a ground invasion.
In the aftermath, Saddam is found hiding in a hole in the ground.
Three years later...
he's executed.
[crowd shouting]
It appears America and her allies
are now shaping events in the Middle East to their own liking.
[helicopter whirring]
But during wars and boom-and-bust cycles,
it's the people of the Middle East who suffer most,
always facing uncertainty and danger.
And always in the background, there is oil.
Prices keep rising,
and the Middle East is sitting on more oil resources than anyone else.
In 2012, a barrel of OPEC crude oil costs over $109 a barrel,
four times the price in 2003.
Ten Middle East countries cover just 3.4% of the Earth's land surface.
Yet concentrated in this small area
is 48% of the world's known oil reserves.
Saudi Arabia has 17.2%.
Iran, 9%.
Iraq, 8.5%.
And Kuwait, 5.9%.
So OPEC continues to hold a tight fist on the future of oil.
Or does it?
In 2008, America's fracking revolution kicks in.
Fracking, a nickname for hydraulic fracturing,
involves drilling down into energy-rich shale
and pumping a highly-pressurized mixture of water and chemicals into it,
releasing oil and natural gas from the rock.
Thanks in part to the success of fracking,
the US becomes the world's biggest single oil producer,
out-pacing the nations of the Middle East.
But also, more and more nations start turning away from oil altogether,
acknowledging the role fossil fuels play in global climate change.
So where will that leave the mighty towers of Dubai?
Ever since Middle East oil was first discovered,
it has brought incredible wealth to the region
and benefits and blessings to the wider world.
But it has also brought the curse of conflict, war,
and terrorism.
Now the region's dominance in oil production is at a crossroads.
The modern nations of the Middle East
have never known a world that does not covet their oil.
Perhaps, for everyone's sake, it's time they did.
[electronic music playing]