The Third River

نبذة عن كتاب The Third River

This is the account of an oil consortium, the Iraq Petroleum group, from its birth through its development across the Middle East to its eventual demise. By the 1960s, the IPC group of companies controlled 20 per cent of the world’s oil reserves, producing oil from wells in Iraq, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, and exploring many other countries. Based on personal accounts and his own research, the author tells a compelling story of the people and politics behind one of the most powerful – and controversial – influences on the oil development of the region. Among its achievements was a 555-mile oil pipeline that carried oil from eastern Iraq to the Mediterranean coast. The oilmen called this pipeline the ‘third river’, a river of oil complementing the two great waterways of that country, the Tigris and Euphrates. As such, it symbolised the group at the height of its powers, and provides the title of this book.