The Real Story Of The Caribbean Oil Empire | Oil And Gas Pioneers | Timeline

hi everybody welcome to this timeline documentary my name is dan snow and here i am in a lancaster bomber cockpit one of the few remaining lancasters from the second world war to tell you about my new history channel it's called history hit it's like netflix for history hundreds of history documentaries on there and interviews with many of the world's best historians follow the information below this film or just search online for history hit and make sure you use the code timeline to get a special introductory offer now enjoy this show [Music] it's remote and isolated it's riddled with terrifying dangers and disease and there's little comfort but man's quest for oil has become a passion driving pioneers deep into the caribbean jungle to drill for oil to the earth's heart if need be mining transporting and refining oil becomes all-consuming oil means power prosperity and progress if you strike oil you've struck gold [Applause] [Music] the earth is our most precious natural resource it's bursting with minerals and ores hours to take if we know how to plunder them [Music] probably the most treasured natural resource in the modern world is oil it fuels our transport [Music] it rules our economies it influences political society and shapes our lives this new commodity lies hidden in our wildernesses and beneath our seas oil seeps to the surface from cuba to barbados and beyond this is the story of oil and gas exploration in the caribbean and the role played by trinidad and tobago in the world's quest for precious black gold the story of its discovery begins nearly 500 years ago it's the late 16th century the first adventurers from europe are heading across the atlantic in search of the fabled el dorado on route to the east in the vanguard of this new wave of explorers to arrive in trinidad and tobago is england's most famous sailor of the era so walter raleigh trinidad and tobago were two islands that formed a very early part of the european expansion overseas walter raleigh came here in 1595 it's taken raleigh months to reach the caribbean and his ships are badly in need of caulking he's desperately seeking a source of tar to repair his vessels making the water tight for their intrepid onward journey [Music] he stopped on the south western peninsula at the town of la bree and as his men went inland they discovered a natural lake of asphalt raleigh writes in his ship's log at this point called tierra de bray or pisce there is that abundance of stone pitch that all the ships of the world may be loading from thence and we made trial of it in trimming our ships to be most excellent good he gave prominence and he let the world know that here in trinidad there was such an excellent tar material subsequently for centuries afterwards was very widely used by europe and north america and that's really the first historical reference that we have to hydrocarbon deposits in trinidad and tobago through the next two and a half centuries numerous europeans come and go from trinidad and tobago's shores [Music] the dutch hull the islands during the late 17th century before other colonial powers take possession the rich source of tar is one of the main attractions for these seafaring nations the tar bubbles on the surface of the pitch lakes in the interior not far from their landing spot at the brae [Music] but they have no idea how this trick-a-like substance is formed or how long the supply might last [Music] the formation of oil begins with billions of plankton dying and falling to the seabed without being eaten by predators plankton and other sea and land animals are buried in layers of sediment squashed beneath the accumulated sands the earth's core heats up the seabed to 100 degrees centigrade which finally converts the dead flora and fauna now millions of years old to oil as pressure builds the oil takes the path of least resistance worming through rock fishes on its journey to the surface when you take that sweet honey colored oil that we talk about which is sweet crude and you let bacteria attack it it converts olive oil into treacle it makes the molecules that are nice and short very long which means that it can't flow very well and if you leave that at the surface for a long period of time the bacteria will convert the oil into what we all know as asphalt for the first three centuries of the known existence of oil in trinidad it is used in the form readily found bubbling from tar pits along the coast around la bray tara is collected on the surface and boiled in huge vats tar caulking becomes an intensive activity there were many other europeans who came but no one of them really sought to explore either the tar sands with the asphalt or to look for oil until 1866 an english engineer living in port of spain captain walter p darwin is convinced there's oil to be found inland in the la bre area raising finance he establishes the perea petroleum company and sets off into the interior it's a stifling ruling and seemingly endless trek no one knows how far they will have to walk or whether they will meet success few have ever set foot in this land before darwin its impenetrable jungle bursting with wildlife and disease the quest for oil underground has begun captain walter darwin was my great-grandfather and his wife mary of course was my great-grandmother direct descendant but he was first and foremost a pioneer he believed that oil could be found in uh geologically sound formations below the soil darwin knows that where there's tar there's oil somewhere deep underground he just has to find the source and tap it before the oil reaches the surface and turns to sticky tar but it's a gamble he's prepared to risk not only his own future but the lives of his men too as they search feverishly for evidence of oil what stopped him in our apparel was the site of natural oil seepages oil coming up to the surface naturally without any human intervention [Music] the early explorers went for oil seeps which was a pretty certain way of finding oil and they required that the oil not be too light because the very light oil is very volatile and volatile oil you can't put in a wooden barrel because it would leak and explode so they were very happy to find the original coil seeps and drill for those or drill around them and they just went deeper and deeper and deeper finding the same kind of oil [Music] the conditions were horrendous it was mosquito ridden there were snakes it was just raw virgin jungle without roads or communications the men are isolated they must be self-reliant pouring tools and essential foodstuffs to the site of their venture all their other needs must be supplied from the natural resources surrounding them he had raised capital here on trinidad on the local market to deepen the well he dug a well that went down to about 160 feet and that was successful it's one of the earliest oil wells to be drilled in trinidad but the boar's gas pressure is so low darwin struggles to bring oil to the surface he tries dipping for oil but cannot bring up sufficient quantities to make it profitable any other man would be crushed by his failure but darwin perseveres the climate is taking its toll darwin's men risk everything for their employers ambition but they are succumbing to the hard work and heat in the jungle finally disease creeps into the camp it shows no respect for its victims killing labourers and eventually the boss too [Music] he was in the process of carrying his material down to the well and he took in with what was done at the time as pinicus fever yellow fever of which he died he succumbed he was just too far out there was no medical help there was just absolutely nothing to help him with his illness and he died right there on the [Music] location the jungle yellow fever is a leveler picking off victims irrespective of status wealth or ambition [Music] he was taken after his death in a fishing boat with my great-grandmother mary his wife and one person and they rode across the sea from our repair row into san fernando a trip that must have taken them the best part of a day and a night because he had a communicable disease he was buried without ceremony in the san fernando corpus cemetery yellow fever linkers on a cadaver the men entering darwin's body are the last to put themselves at risk for this oil pioneer darwin has buried hastily but his discovery at aripero has started a new contagion the search for black gold [Music] no one else took the risk of investing in oil in trinidad even though they knew that there was oil but but the problem was first of all the extraction of the oil and secondly the marketing because he was firm in his belief that the oil wasn't only going to be found under the pitch lake and could be found anywhere that the geological formations allowed i believe that people like lilam and rust were empowered by the belief that he had and his ability to prove his belief by producing oil to the surface in commercial quantities he showed them it could be done [Music] oil is becoming an increasingly important commodity as the industrial revolution reaches its height it's a worldwide race to find reliable and abundant oil fuels investment is a high risk venture but the rewards will be immense for the winner [Music] the drake well is drilled in pennsylvania but the exploration of oil in trinidad has a head start the darwin well set the stage for what would then happen in the late part of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century when the pioneers such as randall frost and john lilam would then again resuscitate the the activities in trinidad tobago walter darwin's drilling venture was based in the interior at arapaira but the pioneers to whom he hands over are based at guapo on the leeward side of trinidad and guayagueri deep inside the jungle towards the atlantic coast today it is a remote and wild area of jungle in the 1890s it's a hell hole chock full of dangers randolph rust arrives in trinidad in 1881. he's english and hopes to make money from oil but he needs an investor by serendipity he meets john lee lund also recently arrived from china the two will make superb partners my grandfather was a very adventurous man and a very brave man because he left his village in sunway in canton province as a young man and came traveled to many countries before he eventually came here to the island of trinidad and tobago is an entrepreneur he makes his first fortune in trinidad from investment in cocoa plantations before opening a string of chinese shops which spread across the island importing and exporting goods makes his second fortune john lee lum is now a successful and increasingly wealthy businessman [Music] he did so well and the government paid such heed to his enterprise that they allowed him to to coin his own money he made paper money he made metal coins so that the lee lum coin from i would say the 1890s right into the 1920s was a very valid piece of coinage a currency that one could use throughout the country [Music] lilam coins are minted in birmingham england alongside currencies destined for russia italy india and france while lee lam takes the last decade of the 19th century to establish himself randolph rust has been prospecting at guayagueri it's closer to the atlantic coast than it is to the harbour at la bre rust realizes that efficient transportation to market is almost impossible without a large injection of cash randall russ from what i understand was seeking finance for his search for oil and my grandfather i suppose had the foresight to advance him money to finance this project randolph rust and john lee lum go into business together their first successful wells were in the guayaguaya area on the far south eastern coast of trinidad in 1901 rust and lum established the canadian exploration syndicate the year later they sink their first well the crude oil is extracted using a steel tube lowered on a cable suspended from a scaffold it's a laborious process and once the blister of oil is exhausted the entire rig must be moved to a new site [Music] after three months rust and lee lum have a well 310 meters deep in operation it's a slow start but by introducing steam-powered engines they expand to 10 wells at the height of production they are able to produce 100 barrels of oil a day it's a tremendous success but they're operating on a minuscule scale both rust and lilam you know went into a boom period and that is a period in which additional oil wells were opened workers flocked the new oil field they are paid in li-lam currency to be spent in li-lum shops transportation of the crude oil remains a headache for rust and li-land they are forced to use the jungle's network of rivers linked by stretches of rudimentary roads it's arduous time-consuming and expensive like darwin's their entire operation is exposed to the ravages of the jungle eventually the geography and geology of the island defeat them too far from the coast without a reliable route to the port of la bray they have exhausted themselves and emptied their pockets they struggle on until 1907. the lamb returns to china where he dies 10 years later randolph rust stays on in trinidad convinced that one day sufficient oil will be drilled to make a future pioneer very wealthy on the leeward coast german immigrant conrad frederick stollmeier encounters similar problems in the 1850s having already established an asphalt extraction enterprise at the pitch lake exporting the tar through la bray stollmeyer now strikes oil on his estate in the guapo area initially he uses the vance river to carry his oil to the coast linking up with his export activities at brighton pier in la bray but diverting monies into road construction in the interior pays off for this pioneer felling trees and digging roads in the humid jungle is slow going but ultimately it achieves faster access to the harbour at brighton pier along with his tar exports stallmaier can now also roll barrels of oil onto ocean-going ships headed for the expanding markets in north america and europe until now oil has been used mainly as a lubricant in industry and as a domestic fuel but an embryonic industry is set to soak up the world's oil reserves the advantages of the automobile become apparent and the need for oil and therefore petrol fuels a new rush suddenly geologists like arthur b b thompson are highly sought after an englishman brought out to trinidad bb thompson locates more reserves around guapo and in 1907 number three oil well is successfully sunk of course news of that discovery in the forest of guapo went very quickly to number 10 downing street being a colony trinidad and tobago's natural resources belong to the united kingdom when the admiralty in london decides to convert the royal naval fleet from coal to diesel power the british looked to their caribbean possessions for oil that was significant and once the british from 1910 moved from coal to oil than other european nations seeing the success of this experiment followed as well as north america between 1909 and 1912 60 oil companies are registered all prospecting in the south of trinidad in search of the 20th century's el dorado black gold cocoa and sugarcane remain trinidad's major exports but anticipating the burgeoning energy industry is on the verge of ballooning a fourth man twenty-year-old mikey hamel smith a third generation trinidadian appears on the horizon in 1909 he qualified as an attorney and started his own film he traveled the lengths and breaths mainly of south trinidad doing what people thought was crazy and that is spending hard earned money on buying subsurface mineral rights there are already sufficient players in the oil production game so instead mikey hamill smith decides to invest in ownership of potential oil lurking underground it's a gamble that ultimately pays off world war one in europe is looming and winston churchill's decision to expand the royal naval fleet requires even more oil running on oil makes the fleet faster and more efficient the need for increased production brings work and investment to trinidad its oil industry now truly enters the 20th century all of a sudden in the space of about just over a decade becomes an important center a major center for production of oil for use by by the british empire during the interwar period trinidad and tobago's oil industry continues to attract overseas investment in its natural resources at home lots of money is being made but it's not landing in the people's pockets the workers in oil and in sugar were becoming increasingly impoverished because the captains in the oil industry in particular were not prepared to share their enormous profits with the ordinary workers in addition it was it was a period of considerable tension for trinidad and tobago attracted by the prospect of employment workers from neighboring islands flocked to trinidad during the 1920s and 30s the influx of people lowers the standard of living disease and poverty spread among the workers in 1937 it was estimated that the average lifespan of a worker in trinidad a laborer was 45 years and i think it was a sharpness of that economic contrast that angered the working class enormously and therefore the period from 34 to 37 in trinidad were very very turbulent years uriah buzz butler is one of the leaders heading the workers movement striking for better conditions and the right to vote the conditions of the poor indians and negroes in sugar and oil respectively was nothing short of sub-human but another war is on its way and with it the potential for economic security moving forward to 1939 to 1945 in his second world war again trinidad became very strategic to great britain and the united states as the tensions developed with germany then then britain began preparing for war by 1940 the islands of trinidad and tobago have become logistically important to the allies in the war effort a lot of food came up from argentina and from from brazil going across the atlantic to britain trinidad was a strategic location for refueling those vessels in london sir winston churchill is caught between a rock and a hard place with france now on occupied territory the british empire stands alone against her enemies churchill needs to bring the usa into the war but in return the americans want access to britain's overseas territories in 1940 cross-atlantic discussions between prime minister churchill and america's president roosevelt result in the signing of the destroyers for bases contract which means the americans win rent-free land leases on british possessions and in return the u.s transfers 50 destroyers to boost the royal navy's fleet in the caribbean and atlantic the americans can now build military bases in trinidad at chagwaramas they build one of the most important airbases outside the united states it becomes strategically important for merchant navy convoys collecting supplies to transport to britain the base soaks up workers it's boom time for trinidad and tobago during the early 1940s but when the war in europe ends the troops begin to return home these men have fought for the mother country some have died in a war thousands of miles from home it's 1945 and there's the first whiff of independence in the air native african percussion music has been part of the cultural background of trinidad and tobago for three centuries but the music of slavery has become linked with rebellion and protest with the prohibition of traditional bamboo stick instruments the oil industry provides a new tune readily available for anyone to play millions of oil drums have been produced during the war now they're transformed into the steel pan trinidad and tobago has invented a new cultural identity and the only new musical instrument of the 20th century [Music] the new sound of caribbean music goes hand in hand with the island's growing argument for independence [Music] it's a refrain taken up by dr eric williams an oxford university educated trinidadian who returns home and where in 1955 he decides to put down his bucket he forms the people's national movement a year later by 1962 the fight for independence is won it's a watershed not only for the island's history but for the country's oil and gas industry democracy means equality of opportunity for all in education in the public service and in private employment democracy means responsibility of the government to its citizens the protection of the citizens from the exercise of arbitrary power and the violation of human freedom and individual rights all that is democracy all that is our democracy to which i call upon all citizens to dedicate themselves on this our independence day there was a a whole nationalist movement that said we must own our industries that are commanding heights of the economy both in sugar and in oil were in the hands of foreigners so people were saying we are free but very unfree we are independent but very unindependent and dr williams and his government was in a sense forced to come to terms with the fact that we needed to have more and more control of the economy dr eric williams is the latest pioneer in trinidad and tobago's oil industry he's the father of the nation he can do nothing wrong and people just listen to his every word dr williams is assisted by a handful of politicians and scientists they have a huge job ahead of them to build a nation and an economy port of spain's wealth stems from the early pioneers efforts it's been amassed over a century of exploration and exploitation of the country's natural resources but it's their newly won independence that signals a new policy the desire to put the nation's wealth in the hands of the people the late 1960s the main oil company drilling offshore is a moco they're only interested in oil and a by-product gas they burn off to a moco it's worthless to dr williams it's the stepping stone to the country's rich future eric williams then said to them he will not allow the burning of the gas ammo quote generously offered to solve their problem they said to the government we will not bring it but we'll give it to you for nothing an agreement was reached where all what we call the low pressure gas that is the gas that came out with the oil would become available to the government at the point where the gas is so the government of the day then was faced with a problem we have free gas 25-40 miles offshore what do we do with it but dr williams can see the potential by building pipelines the gas is brought on shore where it is used to produce electricity and that powers the expanding industrial estates along the coast north of la bray with a potentially limitless supply of gas they can put it to many uses certain obvious things initially electricity of course which we knew lng ammonia the cheap electricity powers the first liquid natural gas and ammonia plants however the possibility of steel manufacturer catches dr williams imagination basically he said where cain has separated us steel will weld us back together it's a life-changing slogan for trinidadians the african population has migrated to the cities and new workers from the indian subcontinent have replaced them on the sugarcane plantations surrounding point leases by producing steel on the same site williams can provide new employment opportunities for both ethnic groups bringing them together in one industry owned by the people of trinidad so with that kind of political will behind the use of all gas the government had to wear it all from the petrodollar to invest and again eric williams driving forces exactly this he kept insisting to me and anybody who was involved in this that the future of any country and a particularly small country lies in investment in the productive sector the biggest challenge was persuading the population at large that this was to their benefit here you have a country that was basically agricultural here you have a country where anything big refinery drilling well producing oil producing gas who did it not us it was the shells and the bps and the tech schools and whatnot and for some of this little country with people like myself saying oh no we can do this as well uh generated a lot of very harsh criticisms [Music] but the vision initiated by williams and carried through by men like professor ken julian and his team wins trinidad and tobago the prosperity it now enjoys [Music] trinidad's oil industry must be seen in the context of the geopolitics of that age the early 20th century to the mid-20th century as the oil and gas industry enters this latest phase of development a highly skilled workforce is needed men and women trained locally by world-class engineers but as a professor you rarely no one can replace you in a classroom you can really influence not just the acquisition of knowledge but how young men and young women think my mission was to ensure that the engineers we trained at the university saw meaningful opportunities in whatever sect of activity that we got involved in the pioneers of the mid-20th century their steely insistence that ventures like point leases will succeed and the energy they inject into this project not only builds for trinidad and tobago and industrial base but it grows leaders for the future if you go through pointlessness the ceos of all those plants with very few exceptions maybe one exception all my former students and that's the real legacy today pointless is the site for the world's largest methanol plant it's the latest development to take the island's gas and transform it into a product that the entire world needs and it's produced by trinidadian talent these things were done by enlarged by locals who had accepted challenges to improve themselves and rise to understand new technology and perform services that enhance the situation in the country the methanol produced at the m5000 plant is a truly global commodity it's a key ingredient for modern life used to make electricity and biodiesel it's involved in the manufacture of glass paint and plastic we have become the largest exporters in the world so gas is significant we really are a very major player in the global energy industry despite our very small size it produces the wealth of the country that the country has we're the big dominant economy in the region with oil and gas producing 90 of the island's exports and half the government's revenue such intense industrial development is written on trinidad's landscape it surprises people when they come to trinidad it's not what they expect to see in the caribbean it's different to tobago tobago is that sort of that lovely sort of caribbean it'll um you know the azure seas and the palm trees and the white sands trinidad is not it's an industrial nation every industrial power goes through a dirty period when pollution is ignored in favor of money but like the rest of the world this twin island state assumes 21st century responsibility for its industry's environmental impact the days of foreign piracy are long gone anyone now who invests in trinidad and tobago signs up to the country's strict environmental policy international investors are encouraged to remedy the disruption caused by their operations with financial support for local enterprises that promote the rich diversity of wildlife both on land and in the seas surrounding the islands for the moment it appears that the natural world and exploitation of natural resources are not mutually exclusive but as industrial expansion is inevitable for how much longer can animals and man coexist in this landscape the need to expand production is already driving the exploration of oil fields that the early pioneers could only have dreamt of trinidad is actually attached to the south american plate which is continuous with venezuela colombia and all of those magnificent oil fields the fact that we are sitting on an extension of south america is what has allowed us to have such a lot of hydrocarbons for such a little island the strip of sea between the islands and venezuela is the next big adventure for today's pioneers the deep water is is a new frontier for trinidad there have not been many wells drilled there and basically we're going to find or we're hoping to find exactly the same oil that we have anywhere else but it will have to be found in big volumes if we find those big big volumes trinidad will be very well off economically for a long period of time [Music] but the gas industry is changing globally with new discoveries being made of course there is the challenge of the shield gas internationally that seems to be a big challenge for trinidad so the shield gas will have its impact on how we do business in the future shale gas in the usa may be a threat to trinidad and tobago's traditional gas industry but there are new oil reserves opening up around the globe and the country is poised to take advantage of its long history and exploration in these new territories places like africa that has resources but lacks the knowledge that trinidad has built we can play a role in working with or emphasize the world working with those countries benefiting from our experience here [Music] i believe that we are we have demonstrated to the world that though we are a small country we have been able to punch well above our wheat when it comes to the oil and gas industry for over 100 years [Music] and none of it could have been achieved without the nation's pioneers [Music] walter darwin who struggled with the climate and disease to be one of the first to sink a well on trinidadian soil randolph rust and john lee lum who risked their fortune to develop reserves deep in the jungle [Music] conrad stolmayer who realized that infrastructure and a route to market were vital for success [Music] and dr eric williams who carried the torch that fired the nation to a new level of development these pioneers gave birth to an industry that became the bedrock of an economy producing wealth and stability and a first-class future for the exploration of hydrocarbon resources in the caribbean [Music] you

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Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, oil oindustry, colonial documentary, trinidad, tobago, trinidad oil, tobago oil, carribean history, carribbean colonialism, petroleum industry (industry), oil production

Id: CbAW5LOgLw0

Length: 47min 16sec (2836 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 01 2021