Crude Reality

Crude Reality
Author: Brian C. Black
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2020-09-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1538142481
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This concise, accessible introduction to the history of oil tells the story of how petroleum has shaped human life since it was first discovered oozing inconspicuously from the soil. For a century, human dependence on petroleum caused little discomfort as we enjoyed the heyday of cheap crude—a glorious episode of energy gluttony that was destined to end. Today, we see the disastrous results in environmental degradation, political instability, and world economic disparity in the waning years of a petroleum-powered civilization—lessons rooted in the finite nature of oil. Considering the nature of oil itself as well as humans’ remarkable relationship with it, Brian C. Black spotlights our modern conundrum and then explores the challenges of our future without oil. It is this essential context, he argues, that will prepare us for our energy transition. Bringing his global perspective and wide-ranging technical knowledge, Black has written an essential contribution to environmental history and the rapidly emerging field of energy history in this sweeping, forward-looking survey.

The End of Oil

The End of Oil
Author: Paul Roberts
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2005-04-05
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0547525117
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“A stunning piece of work—perhaps the best single book ever produced about our energy economy and its environmental implications” (Bill McHibbon, The New York Review of Books). Petroleum is so deeply entrenched in our economy, politics, and daily lives that even modest efforts to phase it out are fought tooth and nail. Companies and governments depend on oil revenues. Developing nations see oil as their only means to industrial success. And the Western middle class refuses to modify its energy-dependent lifestyle. But even by conservative estimates, we will have burned through most of the world’s accessible oil within mere decades. What will we use in its place to maintain a global economy and political system that are entirely reliant on cheap, readily available energy? In The End of Oil, journalist Paul Roberts talks to both oil optimists and pessimists around the world. He delves deep into the economics and politics, considers the promises and pitfalls of oil alternatives, and shows that—even though the world energy system has begun its epochal transition—we need to take a more proactive stance to avoid catastrophic disruption and dislocation.

The Secret World of Oil

The Secret World of Oil
Author: Ken Silverstein
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2015-05-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1781688672
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The oil industry provides the lifeblood of modern civilization, and bestselling books have been written about the industry and even individual companies in it, like ExxonMobil. But the modern oil industry is an amazingly shady meeting ground of fixers, gangsters, dictators, competing governments, and multinational corporations, and until now, no book has set out to tell the story of this largely hidden world. The global fleet of some 11,000 tankers—that's tripled during the past decade—moves approximately 2 billion metric tons of oil annually. And every stage of the route, from discovery to consumption, is tainted by corruption and violence, even if little of that is visible to the public. Based on trips to New York, Washington, Houston, London, Paris, Geneva, Phnom Penh, Dakar, Lagos, Baku, and Moscow, among other far-flung locals, The Secret World of Oil includes up-close portraits of a shadowy Baku-based trader; a high-flying London fixer; and an oil dictator's playboy son who has to choose one of his eleven luxury vehicles when he heads out to party in Los Angeles. Supported by funding from the prestigious Open Society, this is both an entertaining global travelogue and a major work of investigative reporting.

Crude Intentions

Crude Intentions
Author: Alexandra Gillies
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2019-12-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0190940727
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Billions of dollars stolen from citizens are circling the globe, enriching powerful individuals, altering political outcomes, and disadvantaging everyday people. News headlines provide glimpses of how this corruption works and why it matters: President Trump's businesses struck deals with oligarchs and sold property to secretive shell companies; the Panama Papers leak triggered investigations in 79 countries; and, corruption scandals toppled heads of state in Brazil, South Africa, and South Korea. But how do these pieces fit together? And if the corruption is so vast and so tied up with powerful interests, how do we begin to fight back? To find answers, Crude Intentions examines the corruption crisis that erupted during the recent oil boom. From 2008 to 2014, oil prices shot through the roof. Motivated by more than nine trillion dollars in new oil money, corruption followed apace. Examining the oil boom is like placing a drop of dye in the circulatory system of global corruption, and watching as it reveals the system's channels and pathways. Company bosses signed off on risky schemes to snap up choice oil blocks. Politicians in Brazil and Nigeria stole billions to build up their election war chests. Kleptocrats in Angola, Azerbaijan, and Russia seized upon the oil wealth to cement their hold on power. And an army of bankers, accountants, and lawyers lined up to help these corrupt actors stash their loot in the global system of shell companies and tax havens that serves today's super-rich. The money then bought yachts, mansions, and even a few foreign politicians. Drawing on information exposed by intrepid journalists, prosecutors, and whistle blowers, Crude Intentions tells jaw-dropping stories of corruption and asks what we can learn from them. The cases reveal common tactics, but also vulnerabilities in this web of fraud. These are the starting points for building a smarter fight against corruption, in the oil sector and well beyond.

Twilight in the Desert

Twilight in the Desert
Author: Matthew R. Simmons
Publisher: Wiley + ORM
Total Pages: 500
Release: 2011-01-04
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 111804052X
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Twilight in the Desert reveals a Saudi oil and production industry that could soon approach a serious, irreversible decline. In this exhaustively researched book, veteran oil industry analyst Matthew Simmons draws on his three-plus decades of insider experience and more than 200 independently produced reports about Saudi petroleum resources and production operations. He uncovers a story about Saudi Arabias troubled oil industry, not to mention its political and societal instability, which differs sharply from the globally accepted Saudi version. Its a story that is provocative and disturbing, based on undeniable facts, but until now never told in its entirety. Twilight in the Desert answers all readers questions about Saudi oil and production industries with keen examination instead of unsubstantiated posturing, and takes its place as one of the most important books of this still-young century.

OPEC in a Shale Oil World

OPEC in a Shale Oil World
Author: Mohamed Ramady
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2015-10-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3319223712
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RAMADy, Mahdi OPec in a sHALE oil world –where to NEXT? With PREFACE by Dr. Sadad Al Husseini , former Board Member and Executive Vice President , Saudi Aramco. "OPEC has played an important role since its founding and continues to do so, but it has to recognize that this role has now changed and the organization has to adapt to new challenges. This book provides some possible solutions" Abdulsamad Al Awadhi, former Kuwait National Representative at OPEC . "Authoritative, well-informed, and excellent account of the role of OPEC in managing the oil market, present, past, and future" Hassan Qabazard, former Director of Research Division , OPEC. ". The call for action by Mohamed Ramady and Wael Mahdy in this book makes it clear that time, and not oil, is the precious commodity that is running out fast on OPEC’s side", Sadad Al Husseini , former Board Member and EVP Saudi Aramco “OPEC is dead. Long live OPEC”. The organization is now going through a mid life crisis in its 54 years of existence trying to figure out where it goes next in a world where OPEC has been relegated from being the energy swing producer, and Saudi Arabia as the ‘Sultan of the Swing,’ to one where it now faces competition from both non- OPEC traditional well as non-conventional shale producers. The Authors examine how OPEC has had to come to terms with the reality that the earlier decades ‘call on OPEC’ has now been replaced by a ‘call on non-OPEC’ and that a new ‘swing’ has been identified- the producers of shale oil. Drawing upon the Authors combined academic and practical first hand insights on OPEC, the book discusses how a new OPEC paradigm has emerged following the oil price rout of 2014, whereby the organization’s principal concern is now protecting market share, without being in charge unlike earlier fleeting periods of the late 1970’s, which brought with it a lasting myth of the OPEC cartel. Mohamed Ramady is Visiting Associate Professor, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia; Wael Mahdi is Bloomberg OPEC Energy Correspondent.

The Oil Curse

The Oil Curse
Author: Michael L. Ross
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2013-09-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0691159637
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Countries that are rich in petroleum have less democracy, less economic stability, and more frequent civil wars than countries without oil. What explains this oil curse? And can it be fixed? In this groundbreaking analysis, Michael L. Ross looks at how developing nations are shaped by their mineral wealth--and how they can turn oil from a curse into a blessing. Ross traces the oil curse to the upheaval of the 1970s, when oil prices soared and governments across the developing world seized control of their countries' oil industries. Before nationalization, the oil-rich countries looked much like the rest of the world; today, they are 50 percent more likely to be ruled by autocrats--and twice as likely to descend into civil war--than countries without oil. The Oil Curse shows why oil wealth typically creates less economic growth than it should; why it produces jobs for men but not women; and why it creates more problems in poor states than in rich ones. It also warns that the global thirst for petroleum is causing companies to drill in increasingly poor nations, which could further spread the oil curse. This landmark book explains why good geology often leads to bad governance, and how this can be changed.

Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller

Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller
Author: Jeff Rubin
Publisher: Random House Canada
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2009-05-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0307373207
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What do subprime mortgages, Atlantic salmon dinners, SUVs and globalization have in common? They all depend on cheap oil. And in a world of dwindling oil supplies and steadily mounting demand around the world, there is no such thing as cheap oil. Oil might be less expensive in the middle of a recession, but it will never be cheap again. Take away cheap oil, and the global economy is getting the shock of its life. From the ageing oilfields of Saudi Arabia and the United States to the Canadian tar sands, from the shopping malls of Dubai to the shuttered auto plants of North America and Europe, from the made-in-China products on the shelves of the Wal-Mart down the road to the collapse of Wall Street giants, everything is connected to the price of oil Interest rates, carbon trading, inflation, farmers’ markets and the wave of trade protectionism washing up all over the world in the wake of various economic stimulus and bailout packages – they all hinge on the new realities of a world where demand for oil eventually outstrips supply. According to maverick economist Jeff Rubin, there will be no energy bailout. The global economy has suffered oil crises in the past, but this time around the rules have changed. And that means the future is not going to be a continuation of the past. For generations we have built wealth by burning more and more oil. Our cars, our homes, our whole world has been getting bigger in the cheap-oil era. Now it is about to get smaller. There will be winners as well as losers as the age of globalization comes to an end. The auto industry will never recover from this oil-induced recession, but other manufacturers will be opening up mothballed factories. Distance will soon cost money, and so will burning carbon – both will bring long-lost jobs back home. We may not see the kind of economic growth that globalization has brought, but local economies will be revitalized, as will our cities and neighborhoods. Whether we like it or not, our world is about to get a whole lot smaller.

Crude Volatility

Crude Volatility
Author: Robert McNally
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2017-01-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0231543689
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As OPEC has loosened its grip over the past ten years, the oil market has been rocked by wild price swings, the likes of which haven't been seen for eight decades. Crafting an engrossing journey from the gushing Pennsylvania oil fields of the 1860s to today's fraught and fractious Middle East, Crude Volatility explains how past periods of stability and volatility in oil prices help us understand the new boom-bust era. Oil's notorious volatility has always been considered a scourge afflicting not only the oil industry but also the broader economy and geopolitical landscape; Robert McNally makes sense of how oil became so central to our world and why it is subject to such extreme price fluctuations. Tracing a history marked by conflict, intrigue, and extreme uncertainty, McNally shows how—even from the oil industry's first years—wild and harmful price volatility prompted industry leaders and officials to undertake extraordinary efforts to stabilize oil prices by controlling production. Herculean market interventions—first, by Rockefeller's Standard Oil, then, by U.S. state regulators in partnership with major international oil companies, and, finally, by OPEC—succeeded to varying degrees in taming the beast. McNally, a veteran oil market and policy expert, explains the consequences of the ebbing of OPEC's power, debunking myths and offering recommendations—including mistakes to avoid—as we confront the unwelcome return of boom and bust oil prices.

A Century of War

A Century of War
Author: F. William Engdahl
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781615774920
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"Control the oil and you control entire nations," said Kissinger. Oil is an instrument of world domination in the grip of the Anglo-American empire. This is a story about power, power over entire nations and continents. Century of War is a gripping account of the murky world of the international oil industry and its role in world politics. Scandals about oil are familiar to most of us. From George W. Bush's election victory to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, US politics and oil enjoy a controversially close relationship. William Engdahl takes the reader through a history of the oil industry's grip on the world economy. His revelations are startling. A thin red line runs through modern world history, covered in oil and blood. This book is not for the faint of heart, but for those who can see beyond the daily media manipulation of reality that is called news.