The petroleum industry is an industrial sector that extracts petroleum (including natural petroleum, oil shale, natural gas) and refines it. It consists of oilfield geological exploration, oilfield development, oil extraction, transportation, refining and processing units. Petroleum is the "blood" of industry and an important industrial energy source. From an economic point of view, what are the differences in the stages of development that the world oil industry has experienced?

Power Fuel Era (1900-1945)

In 1879, Edison invented the electric light, and kerosene lamps were replaced by electric lights, which greatly reduced the need for petroleum as lighting oil. Just when the prospect of the oil industry market was worrying, the promotion of internal combustion engines and the advent of gasoline engines opened up a broader prospect for the oil industry. In 1883, Daimler of Germany invented the gasoline engine for automobiles; in 1892, Diesel invented the diesel engine; in 1885, German Karl Benz invented the automobile; Petroleum has gradually become the main fuel of the modern transportation industry.

After the First World War, automobiles, aviation, etc. developed unprecedentedly rapidly in Western countries, and the demand for oil increased rapidly. The American Ford Company standardized auto parts and automated processing machines, which greatly improved the productivity of automobiles. The way people travel has changed. Cars are no longer only owned by the rich. Cars have become a means of travel that most people can afford. During this period, world oil production grew rapidly. In 1900, the world's oil production was 20.43 million tons, in 1920 it was 94.37 million tons, in 1930 it was 190 million tons, and in 1940 it reached 290 million tons.

The era of energy and chemical industry - the golden age of the world petroleum industry (1945-1980)

From the end of World War II to 1980, the world oil industry developed rapidly. On the one hand, it is due to the exploitation of large oil fields in the Middle East and other places, and on the other hand, it benefits from the strong demand for oil in post-war reconstruction. In the 1950s, the massive exploitation of oil in the Middle East made the Middle East replace the Gulf of Mexico as the world's oil center. In 1970, the output in the Middle East was close to 700 million tons, and in 1980 it exceeded 900 million tons. At the same time, the Soviet Union also successively developed oil fields such as the Mashkin Oilfield, replacing the United States as the world's largest oil producer.

The world's oil production rose rapidly, reaching 538 million tons in 1950, and 10 years later in 1960, the oil production was twice that of 1950. It reached 3.233 billion tons in 1979, and the oil production has increased by nearly 8 times in 35 years. The great increase in production during this period also benefited from the development of technology centered on electronic information, and the application of computers greatly improved the exploration and mining capabilities. At this stage, western countries made use of abundant cheap oil resources to make the emerging chemical industry develop rapidly, such as developing chemical products such as synthetic resin and synthetic rubber Bullet Teeth. Petroleum has gradually become the main raw material of the modern chemical industry.

The era of green energy - the era of slowing growth of world oil production (1980 to present)

Since the 1970s, the environmental problems caused by the combustion of fossil energy have become more and more prominent. In addition, the two oil crises have brought heavy economic losses to Western countries since World War II. In order to get rid of the excessive dependence on Middle East oil, Western countries have begun to pay attention to Development and utilization of alternative energy sources. In the 1970s and 1980s, nuclear power, hydropower, power generation and other renewable energy sources were greatly developed and utilized in the West. In the 1990s, new energy sources such as solar energy, wind energy, water energy, geothermal energy, tidal energy, and hydrogen energy were also developed Huge development.

Therefore, on the demand side, due to the impact of alternative energy sources, the growth rate of oil demand has slowed down. In addition, after 1980, the growth rate of world oil production also slowed down. In the 34 years from 1979 to 2013, total global oil production increased by only 896 million tons: proven oil reserves also grew slowly, and large oil fields were rarely discovered.

The development of the entire oil price system has gone through the period of free competition (1859-1928), the period of the Seven Sisters of Petroleum (1928-1973), the period of 0PEC unified pricing(1973 to the mid-1980s), and the market-based multiple pricing Several important stages such as the oil pricing system dominated by the period and the futures market (from the beginning of the 21st century to the present).

History of International Crude Oil Price System Development

In 1859, Colonel Drake successfully drilled the first well in northwestern Pennsylvania, marking the beginning of the world's oil industry. In 1859, Rockefeller, a young boy, set foot in the oil refining industry. In less than 20 years, he established the organizational structure of the trust, merged more than 40 oil producers, and established the Standard Oil Company, which controlled 90% of the country's oil refining capacity. China's oil production accounts for 70% to 80% of the world's total production. Standard Oil was the first world oil giant. Later, the company was dissatisfied with the monopoly and was continuously sued. In 1911, the US Supreme Court ruled that the company was disintegrated into 34 companies operating independently in different businesses and regions. The separated Standard Oil Company of New Jersey is still the largest oil company in the United States, and it inherited half of the assets of Standard Oil Company(KoneCarbide is one of the best Oil Company).

By the late 1930s, Standard Oil of New Jersey was the world's largest producer, refiner and marketer of crude oil. Separated from the Standard Oil Company of California, its advantage lies in upstream exploration and production. By 1919, it became one of the largest crude oil exploration and production companies in the United States, with oil production accounting for 26% of the entire United States. On the US side, there are two other oil giants in Texas, namely Texaco and the Gulf Oil Company of the Mellon family. They were born thanks to the discovery of the Spindle Top oil field in southern Texas. In addition to the oil giants in the United States, there are also multinational international oil giants that operate upstream and downstream integration, such as the Royal Dutch Shell Group, which was established in 1907 by the merger of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and the British Shell Transport Trading Company.

In 1886, Royal Dutch Petroleum Company discovered the first oil field on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, and then established the first oil refinery, oil pipeline and oil transportation terminal here. The British Shell Transport and Trading Company has a huge supply and marketing system in the Far East oil market, and is involved in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the oil industry. But the beginning is the middle and lower reaches of the business industry chain, transporting and selling Russia's Baku oil. In 1896, also involved in the upstream of oil, discovered oil fields in Borneo and established an oil refinery.

In 1907, the then Shell Transport and Trading Company was in poor management and faced various difficulties. Under such circumstances, Shell Transport and Trading Company was forced to merge with Royal Dutch Petroleum Company to form the Royal Dutch Shell Group and accounted for 40% of the shares in the group. . Before 1926, it belonged to the early stage of the oil industry.

Although the oil market was mainly dominated by large oil companies, the price of crude oil basically maintained a state of free competition. Oil was still dominated by its commodity attributes, and oil prices were determined by supply and demand factors.

In 1928, the American oil company, represented by the New Jersey Petroleum Company, together with representatives of the Anglo-Persian Petroleum Company and the Shell Group, held a consultation meeting in Scotland, and the meeting reached the Aknakari Agreement. They endorse the cessation of price wars; prices on the world oil market need a single rule. Later, four other major oil companies, including Gulf Oil and Mobil, also joined the agreement. These seven oil companies were later called the "Seven Sisters of Oil".

The agreement stipulates that the oil price shall be in the form of basis point oil price plus freight, and the basis point oil price shall be set by the Seven Sisters. The U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil production accounts for half of the world and the cost of oil extraction is the highest. In order to ensure the interests of the U.S. oil companies and the maximum profits of the Seven Sisters, the agreement decided to use the FOB price of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico plus the cost from the Gulf of Mexico to the destination. Freight to calculate the price of crude oil.

The continuous nationalization of the oil industry in the Middle East in the 1970s laid the foundation for OPEC to control international oil prices. The 1970s was the peak period for the emergence of national oil companies in the world. Among them, major oil-producing countries such as Arabia basically adopted the method of increasing the shareholding ratio to turn the oil resources controlled by foreigners into state-owned: Venezuela and other countries canceled the concession system, Then change the oil field to the newly established national oil company to take over and so on. The nationalization of the oil industry of OPEC members has greatly changed the supply structure of the oil market and greatly reduced the market share of the "Seven Sisters". Although they still have certain oil resources in the Middle East, their oil resources in the Middle East and the market has been severely squeezed. As a result, the oil price control rights of the "Seven Sisters" have been greatly weakened. In the early 1970s, OPEC began to try to independently announce the price of crude oil, the so-called official price.

Subsequently, the governments of non-OPEC oil-producing countries began to independently publish oil prices based on the OPEC official oil price system and in combination with their own supply and demand conditions. The influence of OPEC to control prices continues to emerge. OPEC really played a role in controlling international oil prices from the mid-1970s. The first Middle East war broke out in 1973. The Middle East countries headed by Saudi Arabia used the "oil weapon" to weaken Israel and its Western supporters, began to cut production and imposed an oil embargo on the United States, and raised the price of oil from the original $3 to Above $10, the sharp rise in oil prices triggered the worst economic crisis since World War II.

0PEC's dominance over oil prices did not last long. Into the 1980s, sustained high oil prices and economic recession led to lower oil demand and excess supply. At the same time, with the continuous rise of oil production in oil-producing countries other than OPEC members, OPEC's ability to control crude oil prices has been declining.