
Secret of the Seven Sisters, Episode 4: A Time for Lies
The final episode of this four-part series on the oil industry turns to peak oil, the point at which global extraction hits its ceiling and begins an irreversible decline. The film traces how power over that decline has shifted away from the old cartel of Western oil majors toward state-controlled producers, using Saudi Arabia's grip on production as the clearest example of the new order. It follows Venezuela's PDVSA through its transformation under Hugo Chavez, who dismantled the company's old structure and rebuilt it as both his country's main economic engine and a tool of regional diplomacy, trading oil for political influence across Latin America. Brazil's emerging reserves get similar treatment, as the film asks who actually controls the resource now that national companies rival the historic Seven Sisters. Archival footage and interviews build a picture of an industry where the old rules about supply, ownership, and truth-telling no longer hold, and where new powers write their own.