Oil Dimensions of the Suez Crisis and its Impact on the Persian Gulf Oil Industry

Anti-colonial sentiments and nationalist ideas embraced many 3rd-world countries after the World War II. Trying to eliminate the dominance and the monopolistic privileges of foreigners, some countries in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf also sought to catch the management of their natural resources and national wealth. The nationalization movement of Iranian oil, led by Dr. Mosaddeq, caused an intense reaction from the governments in Britain and the United States at the beginning of the 1950s, so that everyone was aware of the Western sensitivity of the huge oil resources in the Persian Gulf. A few years later, Egyptian Gamal Abdel Nasser's efforts to nationalize the Suez Canal resulted in Western military intervention and disruptions in the flow of Persian Gulf oil to Europe. Although the Western governments and the oil companies succeeded, due to precise planning and extensive logistics, to overcome the oil crisis caused by the Suez War, but the thoughts and the actions of Mosaddeq and Nasser left permanent effects on the Persian Gulf oil industry. Pointing out the importance of the Suez Canal in transferring the Persian Gulf oil to Europe, the measures were taken to provide the needed oil of the West during the Suez crisis and the international and regional impacts of the crisis on the issues of Persian Gulf oil have been studied in present paper.