An oilman not of oil

A new biography of Calouste Gulbenkian portrays him as a formidable behind-the-scenes fixer, rather than a fuel fanatic

Calouste Gulbenkian was the then richest man in the world when he passed away in 1955 at the age of 88. But, while the man long dubbed ‘Mr Five Per Cent’ may have made his fortune in his share in a range of Middle East oil ventures, a new book suggests that the source of his wealth and influence was hardly his passion.  Oil made Gulbenkian fabulously wealthy and hugely influential. As Jonathan Conlin points out in ‘Mr Five Per Cent: The many lives of Calouste Gulbenkian’*, the Turkish-born British Armenian was a key figure in the creation of international oil companies.  His 1928 Red Line Agreement—signed by oil firms operating within a red circle on a map, drawn around the former boundaries