Season 1
8 episodes · Nov 1, 1992
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- S1E1
Our Plan
Nov 1, 199252mThe discovery of petroleum gives rise to a new global industry. John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil grows into a monopoly. Muckraking journalist Ida Tarbell pulls back the curtain and reveals inconvenient truths about the robber baron.
- S1E2
Empires of Oil
Nov 8, 199252mOil is struck in Sumatra. Henri Deterding of Royal Dutch Petroleum and Marcus Samuel of Shell join forces and compete against Standard Oil. Oil is struck in Texas. Winston Churchill recognizes the strategic value of oil on the eve of World War I.
- S1E3
The Black Giant
Nov 15, 199253mStandard Oil's Walter 'The Boss' Teagle squares off against Calouste 'Mr. Five Percent' Gulbenkian, gatekeeper to Mideast oil. C.M. 'Dad' Joiner and Doc Lloyd strike oil in east Texas, sparking a boom that brings government regulation to the industry.
- S1E4
War and Oil
Nov 22, 199253mThe key but often overlooked role that oil played in World War II is examined and discussed by war veterans and military historians.
- S1E5
Crude Diplomacy
Nov 29, 199252mMideast oil is declared the greatest prize in history, but a prize not easily won. Participants and historians discuss the wooing of Saudi Arabia's Ibn Saud, the creation of Aramco, and the postwar reality that petroleum is political.
- S1E6
Power to the Producers
Dec 6, 199252mThe story of oil in the 1950s and '60s. Italy's Enrico Mattei challenges the 'Seven Sisters.' Oil diplomacy in an increasingly volatile Middle East. The creation of OPEC in 1960. Cheap oil fuels America's car culture and suburban sprawl.
- S1E7
The Tinderbox
Dec 13, 199252mThe tumultuous years 1971 through 1991 saw shifting power in the oil industry as OPEC commandeered the driver's seat, sparking a global search for new oil sources. 'Oil as a weapon' results in the gas shortages of 1973 and '79.
- S1E8
The New Order of Oil
Dec 20, 199252mIs oil a 'sunset industry'? A galvanized environmentalist movement and government regulation pose challenges to the oil industry. The oil industry presses ahead trusting in its customers' continuing love affair with their automobiles.