Table of Contents:
  • Part I: Founders. Oil on the brain : the beginning ; "Our plan" : John D. Rockefeller and the Combination of American Oil ; Competitive commerce ; The new century ; The dragon slain ; The oil wars : the rise of Royal Dutch, the fall of Imperial Russia ; "Beer and skittles" in Persia ; The fateful plunge
  • Part II: The global struggle. The blood of victory : World War I ; Opening the door on the Middle East : The Turkish Petroleum Company ; From shortage to surplus : the age of gasoline ; "The fight for new production" ; The flood ; "Friends"
  • and enemies ; The Arabian concessions : the world that Frank Holmes made
  • Part III: War and strategy. Japan's road to war ; Germany's formula for war ; Japan's Achilles' heel ; The Allies' war
  • Part IV: Hydrocarbon age. The new center of gravity ; The postwar petroleum order ; Fifty-fifty : The new deal in oil ; "Old Mossy" and the struggle for Iran ; The Suez Crisis ; The elephants ; OPEC and the surge pot ; Hydrocarbon man
  • Part V: Battle for world mastery. The hinge years : countries versus companies ; The oil weapon ; "Bidding for our life"
  • OPEC's imperium ; The adjustment ; The second shock : the great panic ; "We're going down" ; Just another commodity? ; The good sweating : how low can it go? ; Crisis in the Gulf
  • Epilogue: The new age of oil
  • Chronology
  • Oil prices and production.