On the 20th October 1973, Saudi Arabia placed a total embargo on crude oil against the United States because of its support to Israel in the Yom Kippur War, which had exploded two weeks earlier, on the 6th October. While the war between Israel and Egypt & Syria finished five ways later, on the 25th October, the effects of the embargo were much vaster and longer lasting; fifty years later, the memory of the first oil shock is stronger than ever.
This exhibition presents documents from this and other energy crises over the decades, to show the actual reasons of the oil shock (spoiler alert: it was not the war!), its long-lasting effects, and energy-related documents in the archives that can cause more (and more positive) energy shocks.
The first thing to remember: it was OAPEC (the Organisation of the Arab Petroleum Exporting Country), and not OPEC, which placed the embargo.
In 1973, prices for oil went up by almost 4 times in the span of a month, and they remained much higher until the counter-shock of the 1980s. This brought along the necessity to find alternative energy sources: in Ireland, proposals for a nuclear power plant in Wexford in the 1970s were defeated by people power, as the public opinion was not favourable to nuclear power; however, offshore exploration for oil and gas was highly incentivised, as now this more expensive way of accessing fossil fuels was now economically viable. Already in 1971, the "Petroleum Engineer International" magazine noted that "Cork already looks like an oil town" when gas was discovered off the Old Head of Kinsale; after 1973, it became possible to drill fast and to approve many investments towards offshore. The National Archives of Ireland hold the collections about the impact of the 1973 oil shock on the country; more information can be found here [pic 2 and 3]
The 1973 oil shock was such in the West and in the so-called "Third World", but it has significant repercussion also in the Soviet Union. Similarly to what happened in Ireland, Scotland, and Norway, oil in the “difficult” area of Siberia became an important resource. One of the planned projects that benefited from the acceleration given by the crisis was the Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhhorod pipeline, the Trans-Siberian Pipeline, or “Bratstvo” (Brotherhood) gas pipeline, those planning started in 1973, and was fast-tracked thanks to the crisis. The gas pipeline is still one of the major arteries of Russian gas to Europe, and crossing through Ukraine, is now at the centre of international politics.
[Pic 4] shows the Russian-Hungarian language blueprint prepared by the Petroleum and Gas Design Company (OLAJTERV) of the branch/alignment of the Soviet-Hungarian gas pipeline leading to the Tisza Chemical Combine (TVK) in 1973. With the construction of the gas pipeline, Hungary in 1975 joined the “Brotherhood” Soviet gas transmission system. The "Brotherhood" connects Russia through Ukraine and Czechoslovakia to Germany. The 'Brotherhood' pipeline and its protrusions were finally completed in the mid-1980s.
Oil drilling in Norway had started already in the mid-1960s, but it was the 1973 oil shock that boosted it, to the point that the international point of reference for oil prices changed from "Arabian light" to "Barents", the sea that divides Svalbard from Russia; in [pic 5-7], one of the first reports from drilling ever, from 1966.
Contrary to popular belief, there was never a shortage of hydrocarbons in the months of the oil crisis - pumps and supplies worked as per usual, in spite of the boycott. The effect in energy access was all about the prices, which skyrocketed. Spikes in energy prices can have terrible social and economic effects, but they are not new in the history of the modern world: for example, in April 1933, in Lithuania, the citizens of Kaunas were outraged by the high prices of electricity, and started a boycott. In [pic 8], the workers of the Kaunas powerplant in the boiler room.
The Kaunas powerplant was owned by a Belgium company at that time, and they kept the prices at 1,1 – 1,5 litas (the Lithuanian currency back then) at KWh. The promoters of the boycott exorted citizens to switch off all their electric lights, and use candles or oil lamps. They would go as far as to break the windows of the households that refused to do that. Tensions grew, the police intervened, and eventually the Kaunas municipality took action, trying and negotiating lower prices with the Belgian company. When the negotiations failed, The Ministry of the Interior also interfered, reducing the prices of electricity to 0,82 litas for electric lights, and 0,40 litas for other purposes, almost halving the prices [pic 09].
Eventually, the protesters won, and the boycott ended on the 1st of May 1934. The Kaunas municipality sued Belgian company, as high prices was an infringement of the contract between the two parties. The Belgian company got a fine of 154 000 litas. However, the conflict moved to the diplomatic level. The Lithuanian ambassador in Paris was invited to Brussels to discuss the conflict. The Belgian side even suggested to solve the conflict in the International Justice court. Negotiations continued until April of 1935 and the case did not reach International Justice court and electricity prices remained the same as was set in the order by Lithuanian Interior minister. [pic 10-12]
Much of Europe’s wealth and energy was built on the extreme hardship of coal miners. Ince the 18th century, when the demand for coal increased immensely due to steam machine, coal mines became at the forefront of technical and engineering obsession. While surface coal deposits date back to ancient times, the richest coal deposits are located underground. [Pic 13] shows the map of the Brennberg coal mine, 1825. The village of Brennbergbánya, now part of Sopron (Brennberg in German) in Hungary were some of the richest in the country. The coalfields were discovered, according to a legend, in 1753, when a shepherd saw some burning stones that at first seemed like a miracle. Industrial mining started in 1959, with many coal miners families from Germany and Austria relocated in the area. The mines were open until 1959, when extracting coal from the area became economically inefficient.
Since the 1970s, as we have seen, Svalbard became mostly associated with oil, but it was also a very important mining region. Situated in the Arctic Ocean, Svalbard has been a site of extensive coal mining activities, with a rich history dating back centuries! The region's coal reserves have played a pivotal role in fueling industrial advancements in both Norway and Russia, which both operated in the aera also after an international treaty in 1920 assigned the area to Norway. [Pic 14] shows coal miners in 1918. Coal mining actually still continue, though it is about to close operations for good.
Indeed, we want to end this exhibition with a pic for the future: the headquarters of the International Solar Energy Society, at Villa Tannheim in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany [pic 15], established in 1954 - if oil and coal hopefully will soon represent only the history of energy sources, solar power is well-projected into its future.
Queuing for petrol in 1970s' Dublin. From University College Cork, available here
RTÉ News in 1987 on Atlantic Resources' claim that there could be commercial oil in Irish seas. From University College Cork, available here
ENI archives, ENI historical archives: the collections related to OAPEC (until 1975), available here
Petroleum and Gas Design Company (OLAJTERV), Russian-Hungarian language blueprint of the branch/alignment of the Soviet-Hungarian gas pipeline leading to the Tisza Chemical Combine (TVK) in 1973. Reference Code: HU-MNL-OL-XXIX-F-72-b-szám nélkül-1973. Author: András Kiss, PhD
Regional State Archive of Stavanger, First oil drilling on the Norwegian shelf, Morning Reports - page 1, July 1966
Regional State Archive of Stavanger, First oil drilling on the Norwegian shelf, Morning Reports - page 2, July 1966
Regional State Archive of Stavanger, First oil drilling on the Norwegian shelf, Morning Reports - page 3, July 1966
Lithuanian Central State Archives, The workers of the Kaunas powerplant in the boiler room (author A. Meištavičius)
Lithuanian Central State Archives, Lithuanian central State archives, The order of Lithuanian minister of interior setting electricity prices (1933)
<p><strong><a href="https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-institutions/results-(institutions)/?repositoryCode=LT-00000002392term=lithuanian%20central">Lithuanian Central State Archives</a></strong>, Lithuanian central State archives,Letter to minister Dovas Zaunius (1933) </a></p>
<p><strong><a href="https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-institutions/results-(institutions)/?repositoryCode=LT-00000002392term=lithuanian%20central">Lithuanian Central State Archives</a></strong>, Lithuanian central State archives,Letter to minister Dovas Zaunius (1933) </a></p>
<p><strong><a href="https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-institutions/results-(institutions)/?repositoryCode=LT-00000002392term=lithuanian%20central">Lithuanian Central State Archives</a></strong>, Lithuanian central State archives,Letter to minister Dovas Zaunius (1933) </a></p>
Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár, Map of the Brennberg coal mine (1825), ref. HU-MNL-GYMSMSL-IV.1403-c-17.(XXV)-Nr.3532/1
National Archives of Norway , Coal mining at Svalbard (1918) ref. RA/PA-1632/D/L0001/0009
Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Abt. 3. Staatsarchiv Freiburg,Freiburg im Breisgau: Villa Tannheim, headquarters of the International Solar Energy Society, at Wiesentalstraße 50, available here
Research by Ana Batzeli and the APE CM network; text by András Kiss, Marta Musso, Federica Tammarazio
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