The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) awarded a grant of € 530.000 to launch a grand project on the social history of Labour in the Iranian Oil Industry. The NWO award enables a team of PhD and Post-Doctoral researchers to study, for the period of four years, the centurial history of the Iranian oil industry (1908-2008).
As the world's most important source of energy, the Middle East has emerged as the key to the stability of global economy. With over 9% of the globe's oil reserves and 15%-17% of worldwide reserves of natural gas, the hydrocarbons resources of the Persian Gulf's most populous state are crucial to future world energy supply. Iran claims to hold the world's second-largest proven reserves (131bn barrels) after Saudi Arabia (264.2bn barrels). Iran's geopolitical importance in the region and its strategic contribution to the global energy markets can by no means be underestimated. It is, therefore, crucial to understand historical dynamism of the oil industry in Iran.
The discovery of oil in Iran in 1908 created new social, political, economic and even cultural realities at local, national, regional and international levels. Now a century on, Iran's geopolitical role and significance continue to grow. In many fundamental ways, the commodity oil, and those producing it, has played a central role in shaping a model of development, of social mores and behaviours, of political and social relations in Iran, and beyond.
The main objective of this project is to develop an empirical and qualitative understanding of labour as well as labour force in the Iranian oil industry.
For more information on the project contact: Prof. Touraj Atabaki, tat@iisg.nl