Iran’s oil story is, in many ways, inseparable from its political evolution—a long arc that begins under Western dominance, breaks abruptly with revolution, and ultimately reorients toward a very different set of partners. For much of the twentieth century, Iran’s vast hydrocarbon resources were deeply embedded in the Western system. Following the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, a consortium of Western oil majors—including what would later become ExxonMobil and Chevron—played a cen