Overview

Oil is the most vital resource of our time. The oil industry is marked by booms and busts, this volume examines the reasons behind these fluctuations and how the future of the oil business has never looked better - contrary to what many consumers are led to believe.""The Age of Oil"" presents a controversial, yet surprisingly different perspective on the oil industry, as well as debunking the main myths surrounding oil in our time. It also addresses whether we are indeed running out of oil, and examines the role of ""black gold"" in the world economy and today's geopolitical conflicts.This is a must-read volume for anyone who wants to understand the full story of oil and its impact on modern society, and its role in our future.

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9781599211183

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Reviews

""Maugeri's authoritative, well-written assessment of the global oil situation relates so well to the current energy predicament that it belongs in most academic and public library collections. With knowledge and experience in developmental strategy for a major international oil company, Maugeri provides a lively, insightful perspective to the history and condition of the world petroleum industry. A specific argument is carried through the book: the world is not running out of oil--there is more than enough oil in the ground. Sequences of oil scarcity and overproduction are shown to be more related to economics and politics than to geology and technology. The 21 specific chapters are encompassed in two principal parts: ""A History of an Unreliable Market (and the Bad Policies It Prompted)"" and ""Misconceptions and Problems Ahead."" Appendixes deal with oil consumption and with the production and reserves of specific countries and major oil companies. As a library holding for students of political science, economics, science, and technology, this book should be shared with its antithesis, Kenneth S. Deffeyes's Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak. Well footnoted; extensive bibliography; thorough index. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.""-Choice ""Are we running low on oil? After a slew of books by pessimists, here is a convincing counterargument by an oil company analyst. Maugeri explains that the industry has been scarred by recurrent periods of over-production. The major players' resulting cautiousness probably makes current estimates of reserves very conservative., if prices continue at today's levels we can expect aggressive investments in exploration and technology to yield enormous extra supply.""-Harvard Business Review ""Maugeri leverages his insider's knowledge to cast doubt on those who argue that oil reserves are dwindling or that geopolitical concerns have rendered the future of oil production too unreliable to be viable....Ýr¨ecommended for academic libraries....Ýo¨f interest to public libraries.""-Library Journal ""Believing calls for economic independence from oil to be an insupportable ""overdramatization and sterile overreaction to oil's cyclical behavior,"" Maugery seeks to counter the ""trap of catastrophism"" that he sees as infiltrating the public discussion as deeply as the George W. Bush administration. He sets out to debunk these fears by describing this cyclical behavior through the history of the oil industry and similarly recurrent fears about oil shortages, fears that would produce a damaging American interventionist policy in the Middle East, as he suggests.""-SciTech Book News ""Maugeri minimizes the threat of blackmail by oil-producing nations, and he dismisses fears that the world is running out of oil. Environmentalists and those who demand reliance on alternative renewable-energy sources will dispute many of his assertions. Still, this is a valuable effort to explain the issues.""-Booklist

Maugeri's authoritative, well-written assessment of the global oil situation relates so well to the current energy predicament that it belongs in most academic and public library collections. With knowledge and experience in developmental strategy for a major international oil company, Maugeri provides a lively, insightful perspective to the history and condition of the world petroleum industry. A specific argument is carried through the book: the world is not running out of oil--there is more than enough oil in the ground. Sequences of oil scarcity and overproduction are shown to be more related to economics and politics than to geology and technology. The 21 specific chapters are encompassed in two principal parts: A History of an Unreliable Market (and the Bad Policies It Prompted) and Misconceptions and Problems Ahead. Appendixes deal with oil consumption and with the production and reserves of specific countries and major oil companies. As a library holding for students of political science, economics, science, and technology, this book should be shared with its antithesis, Kenneth S. Deffeyes's Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak. Well footnoted; extensive bibliography; thorough index. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. -Choice

Maugeri's authoritative, well-written assessment of the global oil situation relates so well to the current energy predicament that it belongs in most academic and public library collections. With knowledge and experience in developmental strategy for a major international oil company, Maugeri provides a lively, insightful perspective to the history and condition of the world petroleum industry. A specific argument is carried through the book: the world is not running out of oil--there is more than enough oil in the ground. Sequences of oil scarcity and overproduction are shown to be more related to economics and politics than to geology and technology. The 21 specific chapters are encompassed in two principal parts: A History of an Unreliable Market (and the Bad Policies It Prompted) and Misconceptions and Problems Ahead. Appendixes deal with oil consumption and with the production and reserves of specific countries and major oil companies. As a library holding for students of political science, economics, science, and technology, this book should be shared with its antithesis, Kenneth S. Deffeyes's Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak. Well footnoted; extensive bibliography; thorough index. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. -Choice Are we running low on oil? After a slew of books by pessimists, here is a convincing counterargument by an oil company analyst. Maugeri explains that the industry has been scarred by recurrent periods of over-production. The major players' resulting cautiousness probably makes current estimates of reserves very conservative., if prices continue at today's levels we can expect aggressive investments in exploration and technology to yield enormous extra supply. -Harvard Business Review Maugeri leverages his insider's knowledge to cast doubt on those who argue that oil reserves are dwindling or that geopolitical concerns have rendered the future of oil production too unreliable to be viable....Yrecommended for academic libraries....Yof interest to public libraries. -Library Journal Believing calls for economic independence from oil to be an insupportable overdramatization and sterile overreaction to oil's cyclical behavior, Maugery seeks to counter the trap of catastrophism that he sees as infiltrating the public discussion as deeply as the George W. Bush administration. He sets out to debunk these fears by describing this cyclical behavior through the history of the oil industry and similarly recurrent fears about oil shortages, fears that would produce a damaging American interventionist policy in the Middle East, as he suggests. -SciTech Book News Maugeri minimizes the threat of blackmail by oil-producing nations, and he dismisses fears that the world is running out of oil. Environmentalists and those who demand reliance on alternative renewable-energy sources will dispute many of his assertions. Still, this is a valuable effort to explain the issues. -Booklist

Author Information

Leonardo Maugeri is Group Senior Vice President, Strategies and Development, for the Italian energy company Eni, the sixth-largest publicly listed oil company in the world.

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