Achnacarry Agreement

The major oil companies' first attempt to coordinate efforts in order to end price wars. Also known as the "As-Is" Agreement of 1928, it left out too many players to succeed in cartelizing production and distribution. The movement died with the outbreak of World War II.

Concession

The first approach to gain access to oil: purchase rights from governments to parcels of land and the underlying resources. It was the method of imperialism, and fell out of vogue after World War II.

Embargo

The severing of access to a commodity by a warring government, intended to starve the enemy into submission. Utilizing the U.S.'s overwhelming superiority in oil production and refining, the Allies applied embargoes successfully in both world wars. The Arab position was too weak to implement a successful embargo in 1967, but was able to change world opinion about the Arab-Israeli dispute in 1973. Both...