Download or read book Oil Policies Oil Myths written by Fadhil J. Chalabi and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2010-11-30 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, commonly known as OPEC, has been a notoriously opaque and mysterious organization. In this book, Fadil J. Chalabi, an insider who spent many years at the heart of the organization as Iraq's permanent undersecretary for oil, invites us to discover the intrigue and arguments that have shaped OPEC policy since its inception in 1960. The author interweaves his analysis with first-hand experiences that give authenticity to momentous events, including the infamous 1975 Vienna hostage-taking when Carlos the Jackal kidnapped a number of OPEC ministers, including the author. From the time of Egypt under Nasser, Gaddafi's Libya, Saddam's Iraq and Khomeini's Iranian revolution, Chalabi uses his unique position and his unparallelled insider knowledge to illuminate an organization that has, at times, been accused of fomenting economic turmoil, political unrest and even military action. Benefiting from the perspective of an insider who understands the inner workings of OPEC and its dramatic impact on world politics and economics, this book is an essential read for those who wish to look beyond the myths of this highly influential and at times controversial organization.
Download or read book Oil Policies Oil Myths written by Fadhil J. Al-Chalabi and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, commonly known as OPEC, has been a notoriously opaque and mysterious organization. In this book, Fadil J. Chalabi, an insider who spent many years at the heart of the organization as Iraq's permanent undersecretary for oil, invites us to discover the intrigue and arguments that have shaped OPEC policy since its inception in 1960. The author interweaves his analysis with first-hand experiences that give authenticity to momentous events, including the infamous 1975 Vienna hostage-taking when Carlos the Jackal kidnapped a number of OPEC ministers, including the author. From the time of Egypt under Nasser, Gaddafi's Libya, Saddam's Iraq and Khomeini's Iranian revolution, Chalabi uses his unique position and his unparallelled insider knowledge to illuminate an organization that has, at times, been accused of fomenting economic turmoil, political unrest and even military action. Benefiting from the perspective of an insider who understands the inner workings of OPEC and its dramatic impact on world politics and economics, this book is an essential read for those who wish to look beyond the myths of this highly influential and at times controversial organization."--Bloomsbury Publishing.
Download or read book The Oil Wars Myth written by Emily Meierding and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-15 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do countries fight wars for oil? Given the resource's exceptional military and economic importance, most people assume that states will do anything to obtain it. Challenging this conventional wisdom, The Oil Wars Myth reveals that countries do not launch major conflicts to acquire petroleum resources. Emily Meierding argues that the costs of foreign invasion, territorial occupation, international retaliation, and damage to oil company relations deter even the most powerful countries from initiating "classic oil wars." Examining a century of interstate violence, she demonstrates that, at most, countries have engaged in mild sparring to advance their petroleum ambitions. The Oil Wars Myth elaborates on these findings by reassessing the presumed oil motives for many of the twentieth century's most prominent international conflicts: World War II, the two American Gulf wars, the Iran–Iraq War, the Falklands/Malvinas War, and the Chaco War. These case studies show that countries have consistently refrained from fighting for oil. Meierding also explains why oil war assumptions are so common, despite the lack of supporting evidence. Since classic oil wars exist at the intersection of need and greed—two popular explanations for resource grabs—they are unusually easy to believe in. The Oil Wars Myth will engage and inform anyone interested in oil, war, and the narratives that connect them.
Download or read book Oilcraft written by Robert Vitalis and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-14 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A valuable addition to the new wave of critical studies on the history of oil and energy policy”—and a bracing corrective to longstanding myths (James M. Gustafson, Diplomatic History). Conventional wisdom tells us that the US military presence in the Persian Gulf is what guarantees American access to oil; that the “special” relationship with Saudi Arabia is necessary to stabilize an otherwise volatile market; and that these assumptions in turn provide Washington enormous leverage over Europe and Asia. But the conventional wisdom is wrong. Robert Vitalis debunks the myths of “oilcraft”, a line of magical thinking closer to witchcraft than statecraft. Oil is a commodity like any other: bought, sold, and subject to market forces. Vitalis exposes the suspect fears of oil scarcity and investigates the geopolitical impact of these false beliefs. In particular, Vitalis shows how we can reconsider the question of the US-Saudi special relationship, which confuses and traps many into unnecessarily accepting what they imagine is a devil’s bargain. Freeing ourselves from the spell of oilcraft won’t be easy, but the benefits make it essential.
Download or read book Six Myths of British Oil Policies written by Petter Nore and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 23 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Myth Oil and Politics written by Charles F. Doran and published by New York : Free Press. This book was released on 1977 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the myths of unfair oil prices, Israel and oil, obscene corporate profits, divestiture, international energy agency, and OPEC cohesion and provides specific recommendations for a sound energy policy.
Download or read book Myths of the Oil Boom written by Steve A. Yetiv and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-18 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last decade has seen a far-reaching revolution in the oil industry, both in the US and globally. By some measures, America is on pace to become the world's biggest oil producer, an outcome that was inconceivable just a few years ago. But what does this shift really mean for American and global security? In Myths of the Oil Boom, Steve A. Yetiv, an award-winning expert on the geopolitics of oil, takes stock of our new era of heightened petroleum production and sets out to demolish both the old myths and misconceptions about oil and the new ones that are quickly proliferating. As he explains, increased production in the US will not lead to a major reduction in longer term oil prices, even if it has contributed to their precipitous fall in the short run. America will not intervene less in the Persian Gulf just because it is producing more oil domestically. Saudi Arabia is less willing or able to play global gas pump to the world economy than in the past. Building an electric car industry does not mean that consumers will buy in, but neither is it true that a broad shift toward eco-friendly cars will have very little impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Most importantly, raising the level of domestic production will never solve America's energy and strategic problems, and it may in fact worsen climate change unless it is accompanied by a serious national and global strategy to decrease oil consumption. While Yetiv takes on these and a number of other misconceptions in this panoramic account, this is not just an exercise in myth-busting; it's also a comprehensive overview of the global geopolitics of oil and America's energy future, cross-cutting some of the biggest economic and security issues in world affairs. Accessibly written and sharply argued, Myths of the Oil Boom will reframe our understanding of the most politicized commodity in the world.
Download or read book Crude Volatility written by Robert McNally and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-17 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Beyond the Age of Oil written by Leonardo Maugeri and published by Praeger. This book was released on 2010-02-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author puts forward a hard-headed, concrete plan in simple everyday language for how to shift the world economy's primary energy dependence from fossil fuels to renewable energies by 2035. Assuming no specialized knowledge, the author walks the reader chapter by chapter through each of the fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas) and each of the alternative energy sources (nuclear, hydroelectric, biofuel, wind, solar, geothermal, and hydrogen).
Download or read book Out of Gas written by David L. Goodstein and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2005 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Goodstein explains the scientific principles of the inevitable fossil fuel shortage and the closely related peril to the earth's climate.
Download or read book Oil on the Brain written by Lisa Margonelli and published by Nan A. Talese. This book was released on 2007-01-30 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oil on the Brain is a smart, surprisingly funny account of the oil industry—the people, economies, and pipelines that bring us petroleum, brilliantly illuminating a world we encounter every day. Americans buy ten thousand gallons of gasoline a second, without giving it much of a thought. Where does all this gas come from? Lisa Margonelli’s desire to learn took her on a one-hundred thousand mile journey from her local gas station to oil fields half a world away. In search of the truth behind the myths, she wriggled her way into some of the most off-limits places on earth: the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the New York Mercantile Exchange’s crude oil market, oil fields from Venezuela, to Texas, to Chad, and even an Iranian oil platform where the United States fought a forgotten one-day battle. In a story by turns surreal and alarming, Margonelli meets lonely workers on a Texas drilling rig, an oil analyst who almost gave birth on the NYMEX trading floor, Chadian villagers who are said to wander the oil fields in the guise of lions, a Nigerian warlord who changed the world price of oil with a single cell phone call, and Shanghai bureaucrats who dream of creating a new Detroit. Deftly piecing together the mammoth economy of oil, Margonelli finds a series of stark warning signs for American drivers.
Download or read book Lights Out written by Spencer Abraham and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2010-07-06 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this timely book, former Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham debunks the myths that warp our current debate over energy, and offers new solutions to the real problems we face in America. Drawing on the very latest thinking from experts in industry and academia, and his own experiences running America's Energy Department, he proposes a fresh approach to meeting our daunting energy threats. This book effectively answers how America and the world can overcome the challenges of rising global energy demand, geopolitical disruptions of the energy marketplace, and the environmental impact of producing and using energy. What emerges is a pragmatic energy strategy that calls for blending a variety of energy sources including nuclear, clean coal, solar, wind, and natural gas with a more determined effort at improving energy efficiency through the deployment of smart energy grids and buildings, to help meet our challenges while preserving our economy and environment. Coming in the midst of a national debate about global warming, energy dependence and rising energy prices and rich with anecdotes from the author's service in the Senate and cabinet, this book is a clarion call that will help shape our energy future.
Download or read book Oil Wealth and Insurgency in Nigeria written by Omolade Adunbi and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2015-07-29 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Omolade Adunbi investigates the myths behind competing claims to oil wealth in Nigeria's Niger Delta. Looking at ownership of natural resources, oil extraction practices, government control over oil resources, and discourse about oil, Adunbi shows how symbolic claims have created an "oil citizenship." He explores the ways NGOs, militant groups, and community organizers invoke an ancestral promise to defend land disputes, justify disruptive actions, or organize against oil corporations. Policies to control the abundant resources have increased contestations over wealth, transformed the relationship of people to their environment, and produced unique forms of power, governance, and belonging.
Download or read book The Age of Oil written by Leonardo Maugeri and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2006-05-30 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oil is the most vital resource of our time. Because it is so important, misperceptions about the black gold abound. Leonardo Maugeri clears the cobwebs by describing the colorful history of oil, and explaining the fundamentals of oil production. He delivers a unique, fascinating, and controversial perspective on the industry—as only an insider could. The history of the oil market has been marked, since its inception, by a succession of booms and busts, each one leading to a similar psychological climax and flawed political decisions. In a single generation, we've experienced the energy crisis of 1973; the dramatic oil countershock of 1986; the oil collapse of 1998-99 that gave rise to the idea of oil as just another commodity; and the sharp price increases following hurricane Katrina's devastation in the Gulf of Mexico. Today, we are experiencing a global oil boom that, paradoxically, seems to herald a gloomy era of scarcity exacerbated by growing consumption and the threat from Islamic terrorism in the oil-rich Middle East. Maugeri argues that the pessimists are wrong. In the second part of his book, he debunks the main myths surrounding oil in our times, addressing whether we are indeed running out of oil, and the real impact of Islamic radicalism on oil-rich regions. By translating many of the technical concepts of oil productions into terms the average reader can easily grasp, Maugeri answers our questions. Ultimately, he concludes that the wolf is not at the door. We are facing neither a problem of oil scarcity, nor an upcoming oil blackmail by forces hostile to the West. Only bad political decisions driven by a distorted view of current problems (and who is to blame for them) can doom us to a gloomy oil future.
Download or read book OPEC in a Shale Oil World written by Mohamed Ramady and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-10-15 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Leviathan The History of Whaling in America written by Eric Jay Dolin and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2008-07-17 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Los Angeles Times Best Non-Fiction Book of 2007 A Boston Globe Best Non-Fiction Book of 2007 Amazon.com Editors pick as one of the 10 best history books of 2007 Winner of the 2007 John Lyman Award for U. S. Maritime History, given by the North American Society for Oceanic History "The best history of American whaling to come along in a generation." —Nathaniel Philbrick The epic history of the "iron men in wooden boats" who built an industrial empire through the pursuit of whales. "To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme," Herman Melville proclaimed, and this absorbing history demonstrates that few things can capture the sheer danger and desperation of men on the deep sea as dramatically as whaling. Eric Jay Dolin begins his vivid narrative with Captain John Smith's botched whaling expedition to the New World in 1614. He then chronicles the rise of a burgeoning industry—from its brutal struggles during the Revolutionary period to its golden age in the mid-1800s when a fleet of more than 700 ships hunted the seas and American whale oil lit the world, to its decline as the twentieth century dawned. This sweeping social and economic history provides rich and often fantastic accounts of the men themselves, who mutinied, murdered, rioted, deserted, drank, scrimshawed, and recorded their experiences in journals and memoirs. Containing a wealth of naturalistic detail on whales, Leviathan is the most original and stirring history of American whaling in many decades.
Download or read book The Oil Curse written by Michael L. Ross and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-08 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
