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Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service.

To mark 50 years since the global oil crisis, we’re focusing on oil - from discovery to disaster. We hear from Dr Fadhil Chalabi, then the deputy secretary general of Opec (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) about what happened during the 1973 crisis.

Our guest Helen Thompson, Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University, explains why oil became the lifeblood of industrial economies during the last two centuries. We also learn how Kazakhstan signed ‘the deal of the century’ to become a fossil fuel powerhouse thanks to the Tengiz Oil Field.

Plus, why in 1956, not everyone welcomed the discovery of oil in the Nigerian village of Oloibiri. We find out more about the devastating impact of one of the world’s largest oil spills - when the Amoco Cadiz tanker ran aground off the coast of France in 1978. The wreck released more than 220,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea.

And finally, how an indigenous community in the Ecuadorian Amazon fought a court battle to protect their land from oil drilling – and won.

Contributors:
Dr Fadhil Chalabi – former deputy secretary general of Opec
Professor Helen Thompson - Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University
Bruce Pannier - Central Asia news correspondent
Chief Sunday Inengite – chief of Oloibiri, Nigeria
Marguerite Lamour – former secretary to Alphonse Arzel, the mayor of Ploudalmézeau in France
Jose Gualing - former Sarayaku president
Ena Santi - Sarayaku community leader

(Photo: Oil rig. Credit: Fairfax Media via Getty Images via Getty Images)