The age of oil : the mythology, history, and future of the world's most controversial resource /

Explores the obsessions and misperceptions surrounding the resource that has shaped our lives, demonstrating that oil will be with us for a long time to come. Oil is the most vital resource of our time. Because it is so important, misperceptions about the black gold abound. The author clears the cob...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Maugeri, Leonardo, 1964- (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Westport, Conn. : Praeger Publishers, 2006.
Subjects:
Online Access:Table of contents
Table of contents
Table of contents
Table of contents
Table of Contents:
  • Part One. A History of an Unreliable Market (and the Bad Policies it Prompted).
  • John D. Rockefeller's cursed legacy
  • The age of gasoline and oil imperialism
  • The carve-up of Arabia's oil
  • The oil glut of the 1930s
  • Cold War fears and the U.S.-Arabian link
  • The Iran tragedy and the "seven sisters" cartel
  • The golden age of oil and its limits
  • Oil and the explosion of Arab nationalism
  • The first oil shock
  • The second oil shock
  • The countershock
  • A storm in the desert : the first Gulf crisis
  • The Soviet implosion and the troubled Caspian El Dorado
  • The collapse of oil prices and industry megamergers
  • The first oil crisis of the twenty-first century
  • Part Two. Misperceptions and Problems Ahead.
  • Are we running out of oil?
  • The inner secrets of oil
  • The puzzle of oil reserves and production, and the quest for their control
  • The problems with oil quality, price, and consumption trends
  • Flawed forecasts, foggy alternatives to oil
  • Arabs, Islam, and the myth of oil security
  • Appendixes.
  • 1. Proven reserves, production, and reserves life index of the first twenty oil countries in the world and world totals (2004)
  • 2. Consumption trends of the first twenty countries in the world (1980-2004)
  • 3. Main features of some qualities of crude oil
  • 4. The largest national oil companies
  • 5. The largest international oil companies.