Overview

The sensational human story of the hunt for oil, and the politics, power and personalities involved. Over the last 20 years, oil prices have soared from $7 a barrel to $147 and down to $37. Amid economic boom and bust, speculators, traders, politicians and monarchs have plotted to earn fortunes from oil, and prayed for salvation from unpredictable natural and man-made disasters. Behind the headlines are 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 prices. Success or failure for all those extraordinary personalities depends on squeezing their rivals and squeezing the crude out of the rocks. Overweening vanity and greed absorb those titans whose ambitions are forging the world’s quest for oil. Exploiting unprecedented close access to the lives of irrepressible traders in New York, oil-oligarchs in Moscow, corporate chieftains in Dallas and London and wily politicians floating in jets across the globe, Tom Bower presents the untold story of the most important quandary of our times: why, if there is plentiful oil in the earth, does mankind face a dire shortage threatening our lives? Self-interest is propelling the squeeze and there seems to be no salvation.

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9780007360918

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Reviews

'A gripping and convincing account of the turbulent story of the global oil industry over the past decade...scorchingly topical... The Squeeze provides the fascinating story behind the headlines...a first-rate account of where the oil industry is now and some useful pointers as to where it is going' Financial Times 'Reveals brilliantly the drama behind the scenes...Bower has produced a work which will be popular and which gets the broad brushstrokes right' Spectator 'Gripping...However fast-paced, Bower cleverly keeps the action in focus ...(he) builds up a brilliant picture...(and) achieves an impressively seamless continuity. He skilfully depicts accountants squeezing costs, oil majors squeezing rivals, governments squeezing the industry, directors squeezing peers from the boardroom and traders squeezing each other in the market place' TLS 'A shattering critique which will leave...readers angry' Independent 'A roller-coaster account of the past 30 years of the oil industry...he has a real sense of the drama of deal-making and deal-breaking...Bower is particularly entertaining on the vast Russian oil industry' Daily Telegraph

'A gripping and convincing account of the turbulent story of the global oil industry over the past decade...scorchingly topical... The Squeeze provides the fascinating story behind the headlines...a first-rate account of where the oil industry is now and some useful pointers as to where it is going' Financial Times'Reveals brilliantly the drama behind the scenes...Bower has produced a work which will be popular and which gets the broad brushstrokes right' Spectator'Gripping...However fast-paced, Bower cleverly keeps the action in focus ...(he) builds up a brilliant picture...(and) achieves an impressively seamless continuity. He skilfully depicts accountants squeezing costs, oil majors squeezing rivals, governments squeezing the industry, directors squeezing peers from the boardroom and traders squeezing each other in the market place' TLS'A shattering critique which will leave...readers angry' Independent'A roller-coaster account of the past 30 years of the oil industry...he has a real sense of the drama of deal-making and deal-breaking...Bower is particularly entertaining on the vast Russian oil industry' Daily Telegraph

Author Information

Tom Bower has a distinguished reputation as an investigative historian, broadcaster and journalist and is the author of several ground-breaking books about tycoons. His most recent works are ‘Conrad and Lady Black’, ‘The Squeeze’ and his biographies of Simon Cowell and Bernie Ecclestone. Among his other much-debated biographies are those of Mohammed Fayed, Richard Branson and Robert Maxwell.

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