BBC Four

Knowledge, arts, music and culture from the UK and the world.

BBC Four reflects arts, music and culture with an ambitious range of intellectually and culturally enriching programmes, taking an expert and in-depth approach to its subjects.

BBC 4

BBC Two

BBC Two is a TV channel that started broadcasting on the 20th April 1964.

BBC Two Scotland

Planet Oil: The Treasure That Conquered the World

Iain Stewart

Richard Downes

Russell Leven

Planet Oil: The Treasure That Conquered the World: Episode 2

Documentaries

Factual

planet-oil_e2_e_170215_paul-macfadyen.jpg

Episode 2

BBC Two - Planet Oil: The Treasure That Conquered the World, Episode 2

Iain Stewart explores the importance of oil and how the world has become so reliant on it.

Professor Iain Stewart looks back at the 1950s, a time when the oil and gas fields of the Middle East became a focus for military conflict.

By the early 1950s, a holy trinity of oil, plastics and fertilisers had transformed the planet. But as Professor Iain Stewart reveals, when the oil-producing countries demanded a greater share in profits from the western energy companies, the oil and gas fields of the Middle East became a focus for coup d'etats and military conflict.

In the North Sea, Prof Stewart recalls the race against time to find alternative supplies in the shallow, but turbulent waters both here and in America's Gulf coast.

The offshore discoveries in the 1970s proved to be a game changer. It marked an engineering revolution, the moment when 'difficult' oil and gas (previously unviable sources) could be commercially produced from the ocean depths. It was the moment when Western Europe and the US finally unshackled themselves from their 20th-century energy security nightmare.

Documentary series exploring how the world became so reliant on oil.

Documentary series exploring how we've become so reliant on oil in little longer than a human lifetime.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Planet Oil: The Treasure That Conquered the World

Episode 2

Contributors

Genres

Formats

Series

BBC Four

About BBC Four