AIOC

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Anglo-Iranian Oil Company


Before Mossadegh took power in Iran and decided to nationalize Iran's oil, the Bristish owned company know as the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, AIOC, was the sole oil company operating in Iran.

Because fo the pre existing relations between iran and the UK, this was the only oil company to have any say over the iranian oil at the time. It had existed since the begining of the early 1900's and was very sucessful

When Prime Minister Moossadegh took power and began to nationalize the oil the company realized it would loose all of its product and asked for the british government to step in:

At the time, the British were taking 85% of Iranian oil profits. In March 1951, the Iranian parliament (the Majlis) voted to nationalise the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) and its holdings by passing a bill strongly backed by the elderly statesman Mohammed Mossadegh, a man who was elected Prime Minister the following April by a large majority of the parliament.Nationalization of the oil industry in 1951 resulted in temporary political and financial chaos. Production did not resume until late 1954. As part of the nationalization process, the government formed the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). As owner, the government directed NIOC policy. As a result of the Consortium Agreement reached in 1954 between the government and a consortium of foreign oil companies, industry control of the oil companies was left virtually intact, but the agreement greatly increased the government's share of income from each barrel of oil produced

When no agreement could be reached the AIOC took action be requesting that the government step in and control the situation. The Solution was to remove prime minister Mossadegh and replace him with the figure head Shah. The shah would for the most part be under control by the US and he would make it so that Iran could not nationalize their oil.