Seven Sisters (oil Companies) - Composition and History

Composition and History

In 1951 Iran nationalised its oil industry, then controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now BP), and Iranian oil was subjected to an international embargo. In an effort to bring Iranian oil production back to international markets, the U.S. State Department suggested the creation of a "Consortium" of major oil companies. The "Consortium for Iran" was subsequently formed by the following companies:

• Anglo-Persian Oil Company (United Kingdom) : This subsequently became Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and then British Petroleum. Following the amalgamation of Amoco (which in turn was formerly Standard Oil of Indiana) and Atlantic Richfield into British Petroleum, the name was shortened to BP in 2000.
• Gulf Oil (United States) : In 1984 most of Gulf was acquired by SoCal and enlarged SoCal entity became Chevron. The smaller parts of Gulf Oil was acquired by BP and Cumberland Farms. A network of service stations in the northeastern United States still bears the Gulf name.
• Royal Dutch Shell (Netherlands/United Kingdom)
• Standard Oil of California (SoCal) (United States) : This subsequently became Chevron in 1984 when SoCal acquired Gulf Oil.
• Standard Oil of New Jersey (Esso) (United States) : This subsequently became Exxon, which renamed itself ExxonMobil following the acquisition of Mobil in 1999.
• Standard Oil Co. of New York (Socony) (United States) : This subsequently became Mobil, which was acquired by Exxon in 1999 to form ExxonMobil
• Texaco (United States) : This was acquired by Chevron in 2001.

The head of the Italian state oil company, Enrico Mattei sought membership for the Italian oil company Eni, but was rejected by what he dubbed the "Seven Sisters" - the Anglo-Saxon companies which largely controlled the Middle East’s oil production after World War II. British writer Anthony Sampson took over the term when he wrote the book The Seven Sisters in 1975, to describe the shadowy oil cartel, which tried to eliminate competitors and control the world’s oil resource.

Being well-organized and able to negotiate as a cartel, the Seven Sisters were initially able to exert considerable power over Third World oil producers. However, in recent decades the dominance of the Seven Sisters and their successor companies has been challenged by the following trends:

• the increasing influence of the OPEC cartel (formed in 1960),
• a declining share of world oil & gas reserves held by OECD countries and
• the emergence of powerful state-owned oil companies in emerging-market economies.

As of 2010, the surviving companies from the Seven Sisters are BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell, which form four members of the "supermajors" group.