Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.Business: The Seven Sisters Still Rule
Five years after the crunch, most oil firms are as robust as ever
There's no business like oil business.
—C.C. Pocock, chairman of Shell
A few years ago, such Ethel Mermanesque exuberance would have sounded strange coming from the chief of one of world oil's fabled Seven Sisters—Exxon, Shell, Mobil, Texaco, British Petroleum, Standard Oil of California and Gulf.* Though the sorocracy had ruled the international oil trade since it began, the upheaval in the business that started with the Arab embargo of 1973 threatened to end this reign. Flushed with their success in quintupling the price of petroleum, the OPEC countries were...
Email, Password or Region is incorrect
A required form parameter was missing.
The System is currently down. Please try again in a few minutes.
Email Address is invalid
Password is blank
Most Popular »
- Icelanders Avoid Inbreeding Through Online Incest Database
- The 2012 World Press Photo of the Year
- Top 10 Celebrity Restaurants
- Why American Kids Are Brats
- A Cancer Drug Reverses Alzheimer's Disease in Mice
- Jimmy Stewart: A Hero Home From the War
- The Second Coming of Warren Jeffs: The Jailed Polygamist Leader Prepares His Flock for Doomsday
- Why Is Your Boss Moving to Brazil?
- The Foreclosure Deal: Obama and the Banks Win Big While Homeowners See Modest Reward
- Who Qualifies for the $26 Billion Foreclosure Settlement?
- Why Is Your Boss Moving to Brazil?
- The Upside Of Being An Introvert (And Why Extroverts Are Overrated)
- The Second Coming of Warren Jeffs: The Jailed Polygamist Leader Prepares His Flock for Doomsday
- Why Mario Monti Is the Most Important Man in Europe
- Friends With Benefits
- Lessons Unlearned: Why Another Gigantic Famine Looms in Africa
- Companies Are the New Countries
- Seoul Searching
- New York City: 10 Things to Do
- Why It's Time to Replace No Child Left Behind
More News from Our Partners
Top Stories on TIME.com
Quotes of the Day »
