The Color of Oil : The History, the Money and the Politics of the World's Biggest Business [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Ronald Oligney (Author), Armando Izquierdo (Author), Micheal Economides (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2000

The primary colors of oil today are money (lots of it), technology (basic but demanding) and people (special ones). The colors of the rainbow can be seen in the 100+ oil producing countries. There are a dozen large petroleum producing and exporting countries. Yet most have little in their history that links them to wealth, technology and management. Corruption among the elite and governments, mismanagement and the squandering of the petroleum wealth are endemic. Culture is everything, and no other human endeavor makes this as pointedly obvious as the world of petroleum.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book has vastly more impact on world commerce than columnists like Buckley, Goodman and Safire. -- Douglas Perret Star, Journalism Professor at Texas A&M University

From the Author

What was your motivation behind writing this book?

Economides: Well, first we really wanted to tell a story, pieces of which we have told many times. It is a story that needs to be told and has not been told before. We also wanted to bind together, in almost metaphysical terms, society and this particular industry because we think that the impact, influence and importance of petroleum on humanity are civilization-shaping. We wanted to stress the international side of the industry. We take this for granted and yet the fact that my co-author Ronald Oligney and I have worked in 72 countries, perhaps excessive even by oil business norms, is absolutely incomprehensible to all outside the industry.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: Round Oak Pub (March 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967724805
• ISBN-13: 978-0967724805
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #435,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too much fluff, October 22, 2002

By 

Bradd E. Libby (Amherst, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Color of Oil : The History, the Money and the Politics of the World's Biggest Business (Hardcover)

We hear so much about turmoil in the Middle East from economic, political and religious perspectives that, as a chemical engineer, I sought out this book in hopes of gaining some additional 'behind-the-scenes' insight into the dynamics of the industry that most strongly affects, and is affected by, this unrest. This wasn't the book I was looking for.

I won't say it's a bad book; it's non-technical easy reading, it just didn't suit my needs. For instance, there is no table of, say, the world's top ten exporting countries or of proven reserves by country, but yet there's an 11-page biography of the life of John D. Rockefeller (including a 2-page summary table with several portraits of him throughout his life). For some unexplained reason, there are 10 color plates of computer-generated artworkm, which adds absolutely nothing to the book.

The authors understandably are optimistic about the future of the oil industry and justifiably critical of the environmentalist movement. They give a good description of why, for example, Saudi Arabia can't just 'open the spigots' and flood the markets with cheap oil, but we're forced to wade through so many pointless personal anecdotes that it makes it almost not worth reading the book to get to these useful parts.

In short, I'd recommend this book only if you need to read something about the oil industry and have no other alternatives. Otherwise, go for _Hubbert's Peak_.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Colorful Consultants of Crude, April 7, 2000

By 

Monica Perin (Houston Business Journal, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Color of Oil : The History, the Money and the Politics of the World's Biggest Business (Hardcover)

Most people wouldn't choose a book on the oil industry to curl up with when they want a good read. But most people haven't crossed paths with Michael Economides and Ron Oligney, authors of "The Color Of Oil".

Subtitled "The History, the Money and the Politics of the World's Biggest Business," the book is divided into nine chapters, which are color-coded to symbolize primary themes. The lead chapter is "Green: The money, wealth and economics of oil." Another segment called "Black" deals with the physics of finding and producing oil. "Red, white and blue" outlines the history of the oil industry in the United States. A separate "Red" section chronicles the wars waged in pursuit of oil. And "Colors of the Rainbow" deals with the vastly different cultures of the world's oil producing nations.

The book, written from personal experience is filled with stories and incidents the two have encountered in their careers. And like the authors, it provides a unique perspective that differs from conventional wisdom.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At last! Clear thinking and writing about a murky industry, June 6, 2001

By 

Philip E. Lewis (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Color of Oil : The History, the Money and the Politics of the World's Biggest Business (Hardcover)

With a one-two punch of factual data and anecdotal stories, Economides and Oligney peel open the somewhat dark and mysterious ways of petroleum in modern culture and commerce. It was particularly fascinating (and somewhat gratifying) to read how the oil industry's own political self-dealing for the first half of the twentieth-century (always with the more-than-willing assistance of supposedly populist politicians) nearly led to its own demise in the 1970s and 80s... And, the impact of those lessons in the so far relatively laissez faire 90s and 00s and into the next century.

I am somewhat baffled by the assertions of reviewer Stephen Mark, especially about the book's "extremely political" and "ungrammatical" nature. If anything, The Color of Oil exposes the foibles of politics and is an appeal to reason, which of course, is essentially (in the truest sense) apolitical. I found the book well-written and entertaining. Check out the anecdote about Stalin's admonition to his oil minister during WWII: "if Hitler gets one drop of oil, we will shoot you..." I won't give the rest away...

If you're the least bit interested in the oil industry, you are in for a real treat...