Oil : money, politics, and power in the 21st century

With unparalleled insight into BP and its safety record leading up to the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Tom Bower gives us a groundbreaking, in-depth, and authoritative twenty-year history of the hunt and speculation for our most vital natural resource.

Oil Money, Politics, and Power in the 21st Century

Twenty years ago oil cost about $7 a barrel. In 2008 the price soared to $148 and then fell to below $40. In the midst of this extraordinary volatility, the major oil conglomerates still spent over a trillion dollars in an increasingly frantic search for more.

The story of oil is a story of high stakes and extreme risk. It is the story of the crushing rivalries between men and women exploring for oil five miles beneath the sea, battling for control of the world's biggest corporations, and gambling billions of dollars twenty-four hours every day on oil's prices. It is the story of corporate chieftains in Dallas and London, traders in New York, oil-oligarchs in Moscow, and globe-trotting politicians-all maneuvering for power.

With the world as his canvas, acclaimed investigative reporter Tom Bower gathers unprecedented firsthand information from hundreds of sources to give readers the definitive, untold modern history of oil . . . the ultimate story of arrogance, intrigue, and greed.

Author Notes

Tom Bower has a distinguished reputation as an investigative historian, broadcaster and journalist, and is the author of several ground-breaking books about tycoons, politicians, intelligence, and post-war Europe.

Reviews 1

Publisher's Weekly Review

In this penetrating study of the modern petroleum industry, journalist and historian Bower (Outrageous Fortune) portrays the last 30 years as a time of both obscene profits and white-knuckle perils for the major oil companies. Having lost market share and pricing power to OPEC, government oil monopolies, and all-powerful commodities markets, Bowers contends, oil companies are locked in a desperate scramble for reserves, most of them located in unstable countries ruled by hostile potentates. He follows executives and engineers as they drill ever deeper under the sea for elusive deposits, brave Machiavellian negotiations with Vladimir Putin and the Russian oligarchs, and kowtow to Hugo Chavez for access to Venezuela's fields. They weather oil spills, refinery explosions, antitrust regulators, and global warming activists. Bower wallows overmuch in boardroom soap opera, but his analysis of the industry and its shocking price swings is a persuasive one that eschews conspiracy theories and peak oil alarmism to focus on rising demand for reserves that are plentiful but hard to get at. The result is an illuminating look at a business whose real workings are more interesting than the mythology surrounding them. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Illustrations	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
1 The Emperor	p. 1
2 The Explorer	p. 15
3 The Master Trader	p. 33
4 The Casualty	p. 58
5 The Star	p. 77
6 The Booty Hunters	p. 91
7 The Oligarchs	p. 115
8 The Suspect Traders	p. 129
9 The Crisis	p. 153
10 The Hunter	p. 173
11 The Aggressors	p. 203
12 The Antagonists	p. 210
13 The Shooting Star	p. 229
14 The Twister	p. 243
15 The Gamble	p. 266
16 The Downfall	p. 283
17 The Alarm	p. 304
18 The Struggle	p. 313
19 The Survivor	p. 326
20 The Backlash	p. 343
21 The Confession	p. 372
22 The Oligarch's Squeeze	p. 396
23 The Frustrated Regulator	p. 419
Acknowledgments	p. 463
Notes	p. 465
Index	p. 475

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Author Notes

Reviews 1

Publisher's Weekly Review

Table of Contents