Oil And Western Europe Since 1945

This dissertation is about relationships between petroleum and Western Europe from the end of the World War II to the mid-1980s. It study the influence of petroleum to the Western European economy and society in 1950s to 1960s, the huge impact of two "Oil Shocks" to the Western Europe economy and society in 1970s, and the Western European country dealing with this difficult. The dissertation takes the economy as the master line, containing politics, society, and so on. According to the different subject in different phase between the petroleum and the postwar Western Europe, there is two major questions: First, from the end of the World War II to the early-1970s, how the petroleum becomes the Western Europe the most primary energy, as well as its influence which produced to the Western Europe economy and social each aspect; Secondly, from the early-1970s to the mid-1980s, the impact of two "oil shocks" to Western Europe and Western European counter measures.The first chapter succinctly introduced the general situation of international petroleum industry from 1860s to the World War II, as well as Western European petroleum expense. The petroleum industry has been established in the US. After the establishment, petroleum industry obtained the rapid development. Before the World War II, It was doubling each ten years. The petroleum industry development is the high monopolized industry. Firstly Standard Oil trust monopolized the American market, then "the Seven Sisters" monopolized the international market. Before World War II, the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere is more leading in the petroleum industry, Western Europe be much backward.From the second chapter to the fourth chapter the dissertation elaborated the first question that how the petroleum became the main energy of Western Europe, as well as how it influenced the Western European economy and society.The second chapter has analyzed the preliminary development of the postwar Western European petroleum industry. The postwar initial period, facing the stern economy and political situation, recovering Western European economy is very urgent. However, energy supply is extremely strained. Facing the predicament, the Western Europe country takes the alleviation energy intense condition using the import petroleum a strategy. In the import petroleum's process, the Western European government and the Major Oil companies started the first refinery upsurge of the postwar Western Europe. The Western European petroleum industry obtained the preliminary development.The third chapter elaborated the process that oil becomes the Western European primary energy. In 1950-60s, in the respect of international oil supplying, the Middle East oil output increased rapidly. Soviet Union has started to export oil to the Western Europe for hard currency. US took "the compulsion import quota" rules for protecting domestic energy production. These facts caused the international oil market to have the supply sufficient. At the same time, dozens of American and Western European independent oil companies take part in the international oil market and made the competition of the international oil market extraordinarily fierce, then oil real price falls unceasingly. In addition, in the early-1950s, That Gulf Plus has been abolished caused the international oil price to close its actual cost gradually. The technical breakthrough and the new craft use enable the use of oil to expand. Because of these factors, the Western European oil demands grow rapidly and oil became the most sufficient energy of the Western Europe in the mid-1960s.The fourth chapter analyzed that the growth of petroleum consumption have played the role to the Western European economic and social development, as well as produced problems and worries in 1950-60s. Petroleum consumption growth has sufficient effect to the Western European economy. It prompted the Western European petroleum industry and petrochemical industry to develop rapidly, simulated automobile industry to expand, had the significant influence to the Western European economic structure and even the economic geography layout. On the other hand, petroleum consumption's explosive growth has brought a series of problems and worries to the Western European society. The status of petroleum rise and oil substituted coal. It caused coal industry which has the long history in the Western Europe to decline. Each department of the Western European economy relied on oil, especially the Middle East oil. It made that the Western Europe face the huge danger of the energy supply security. Simultaneously, the cheap oil has also brought the excessive waste on energy.From the fifth chapter to the seventh chapter it is the second qustion. In this part, the dissertation discussed two oil shock's eruption and their impact to Western Europe, the counter measures which Western Europe takes to reduce dependence on imported oil and the effect of these measures.The fifth chapter discussed the reasons which the oil shocks come into being, and their impacts to Western Europe. In 1950-60s, sufficient supply and cheap price of oil already caused the Western European countries to change its energy structure. Their economy has highly relied on the imported oil, particularly the Middle East oil. The potential risks which cause the oil shock have already existed. With two oil shocks erupted, the Western Europe has been seriously impacted, such as the economic growth slowdown, the balance of international payment worsened and the inflation aggravated, and so on.The sixth chapter introduced the Western European countries took a series of counter measures to solve questions which two oil shocks have made. These measures including several aspects, such as strengthen the energy conservation, increases the alternative energy output, carrying out energy multiplication strategy, scattered imported oil source, reduces to import oil from Middle East and so onThe seventh chapter is about that the new changes between petroleum and Western Europe since 1980s. After two oil shocks, Western European attitude to oil become more rationality. That kind ofexcessive dependence to the Middle East oil—despite political and strategic risk—has graduallybeen corrected. At the same time, Western European economic structure has also advanced in new round adjustment High-tech such as IT soared, and traditional industrial department which need amounts of energy, such as steel and iron, petrochemical, automobile, electricity, and so on, became slowdown, even declined. The Western European economy dependence on oil dropped, and petroleum consumption tends to be stable.Finally, the dissertation introduced some new changes on relationships between oil and Western Europe since the mid-1980s. Because the economic structure has already successfully upgraded, as well as the importance of oil has dropped in the Western European energy consumption structure, Western European sensitivity to the oil market fluctuation has already greatly dropped since 1980s—in this period European ingratiation has also developed and enlarged.EU has founded, and expanded to the Eastern Europe. On the other hand, some new questions on oil such as environment, human rights have became the hot issues which Western Europe society paid more and more attention, the relationships between petroleum and Western Europe have also become more widespread, more complex.