The Consortium Agreement of 1954 provided Western oil companies with 40% ownership of Iranian oil production after its ratification in 1954. A year after the overthrow of Premier Mohammad Mossadegh the British and American governments began pressuring the reinstated Shah of Iran into negotiations with Britain over the ownership Anglo-Persian Oil Company. The British cabinet had imposed a series of economic sanctions on Iran that prohibited the export of key commodities to Iran. Britain's boycott had become devastatingly effective with Iranians "becoming poorer and unhappier by the day". The dispute was finalized with the incorporation of a 25-year international Oil Consortium Agreement of 1954 which provided British Petroleum along with American and French oil companies with 40% ownership of Iranian Oil expiring in 1979.” The agreement which was heavily pressured by President Eisenhower, gave American oil companies complete control over how much petroleum Iran pumped and the price it could sell for thus ending Iran's monopoly on the oil trade. Beginning in 1973, the Shah faced increasing tensions with Western nations after announcing he would not renew the consortium agreement upon its expiration and planned to nationalize Iranian oil in 1979. The Shah, speaking to 5,000 farmers and workers, accused the oil companies of mishandling operations under the 1954 agreement. He said he had ordered the national Iranian oil company to start hiring foreign experts to work with Iranians so the company could take over the consortium's duties “either immediately or from 1979.” Many Iranians accuse Western nations of supporting the overthrow of the Shah due to his failure to renew the consortium agreement in 1979 in what is known as the 1979 Iranian Revolution conspiracy theory. According to the New York Times, the oil companies, through a spokesman, argued that the Shah did not have a legal right to end their contract in 1979, because Iran had the choice of renewing it for 15 years.
