November 2016

Amanda Slevin’s study of our energy policy pre- and post-Corrib is a must for policymakers

Dismantling a section of the Corrib gas line at Aughoose, Co Mayo. When Seán Lemass signed the State’s first exploration agreement in 1959, the Irish subsidiary of Messman-Rinehart was given exclusive rights to both onshore and offshore drilling – for a sum of £500. Photographer: Dara Mac Dónaill

Mohammad Mossadegh may have had no illusions about the dark side of black gold when he nationalised Iran’s oil industry in 1951. Iran had been the first Middle Eastern state to permit hydrocarbon extraction, and the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, later known as British Petroleum, had enjoyed the sole concession there since 1913.

“With the oil revenues, we could meet our entire budget and combat poverty, disease, and backwardness among our people,” Mossadegh, Iran’s democratically elected prime minister, explained to the people. “By the elimination of the power of the British company, we would also eliminate corruption and intrigue, by means of which the internal affairs of our country have been influenced.”

Within two years , Mossadegh had been overthrown in a coup organised by the CIA at the request of Britain’s MI6. He was kept under house arrest until his death in 1967.