Over the past two decades, "fracking" has led to a revolution in shale gas production. For some, shale gas promised economic opportunities, cheaper energy bills, and an alternative to coal. For others, shale gas was fool's gold. Critics contend that the shale boom has occurred in a regulatory Wild West, that the response has been fractured and ineffective, or that the harmful environmental and health consequences exceed the benefits from shale gas production. The Political Economy of Fracking argues that the criticism of the shale revolution has been misplaced. The authors use insights from a diversity of perspectives in political economy to understand why the shale boom occurred, who won in the race for shale, and who was left behind. The book explains how private property rights and entrepreneurs led to the shale boom. It contends that polycentric governance, which encourages a diversity of regulatory responses, is a virtue because it generates knowledge about the most appropriate ways to regulate shale development. Private property rights and political institutions that provide for local self-governance also helped to ensure that the benefits of shale gas production exceeded its costs. The authors make the case for fracking shale gas using evidence from shale-producing countries from around the world, comparing them to those that have fallen behind in the shale race. They show that private property rights and markets have been a source of innovation and dynamism and that a diversity of regulatory responses is appropriate to govern shale gas development. This book is insightful reading for academics and professionals interested in the shale boom, the fracking industry in general, and regulatory policy.

This book provides a study of the transformation of the Latin American oil system from one in which the international oil companies dominated to one which is dominated by the main state oil companies, and an account of how some of the more important of the state companies have operated. This comprehensive guide to the evolution of the Latin American oil system combines in one volume a synthesis of material from secondary sources and original research and thus provides an invaluable reference for all concerned with the history and economy of Latin America and with the development and functioning of the international oil industry.

Despite prices of around $70 a barrel, the world is experiencing the fastest growth in oil demand in more than twenty-five years. The Institute for Management Development organized a research conference entitled "Energy Futures" in November 2005. Eighteen international energy researchers, policy makers and executives discussed specific aspects of today's energy industry and its likely evolution. This volume is based on this conference and brings together energy experts of rather different analytical views, doctrinal convictions and stakeholder affiliation to discuss the implications and growth of the oil industry.

Shelving Guide: Environmental Engineering In-situ burning is recognized as a viable alternative for cleaning up oil spills on land and water. It can rapidly reduce the volume of spilled oil and eliminate the need to collect, store, transport, and dispose of recovered oil, and can also shorten the response time to a spill, thus reducing the chances that the spill will spread on the water surface or further into land. This book will serve as a comprehensive reference for all aspects of in-situ burning of oil spills and include the scientific aspects of the burning process and the related effects, as well as practical information about the procedures to be followed and equipment required for carrying out an in-situ burn. Features Serves as a complete source of information on in-situ burning as well as practical guide on how to implement the procedures. Explains procedures for burning in different situations, including on water, land, and ice. Provides information on worker health and safety precautions during burning. Covers several different types of emissions, their environmental fate, and how to monitor them. Includes numerous illustrative case studies.

This book explores the relationship between oil pollution laws and environmental justice by comparing and contrasting the United States and Nigeria. Critically, this book not only examines the fluidity of oil pollutions laws but also how effective or ineffective enforcement can be when viewed through the lens of environmental justice. Using Nigeria as a case study and drawing upon examples from the United States, it examines the legal and institutional challenges impacting upon the effective enforcement of laws and provides a contrasting view of developed and developing countries. Focusing on the oil and gas industry, the book discusses the laws and international acceptable standards (IAS) in these industries, the principles behind their application, the existing barriers to their effective implementation, and how to overcome those barriers. Utilising an environmental justice framework, the book demonstrates the synergy between policy-making, human rights, and justice in oil-producing regions as well as addressing the importance of protecting the rights of minorities. Through a comparative analysis of the United States and Nigeria, this book draws out enforcement approaches and mechanisms for tackling oil-related pollution with a view to reducing environmental injustice in developing countries. Examining the role of NGOs in pursuing environmental justice matters, the book showed the regional courts as one avenue of overcoming the enforcement challenges faced by the developing countries. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental law, environmental justice, minorities' rights, business and human rights, energy law, and natural resource governance.

During the 1970s and early 1980s, the Middle East and North Africa were perceived as being exceptionally successful, but now the region is viewed as a resounding economic and social failure. Islam is not only a religion, but also a political and social project. A major pretext of this work is to demonstrate how the tensions within Islamic movements feed directly into the economic, social, political, historical and religious arena of the region, and vice versa. An introductory chapter sets the context of the book. The core chapters of the book comprise an in-depth examination of the varied forms of oil revenue abuse. For examples, the past mismanagement of the tremendous wealth provided by oil. Following Islamic beliefs, revenue from oil should not finance wasteful consumption, but used instead for public welfare. Abstaining from interest calculations, there should be a case for keeping more oil in the ground. Indeed, oil has also stifled industrial development, and with declining oil revenues, the conflict between civilian and military priorities intensifies. While western interests have promoted arms spending, high population-growth expenditure reinforces the reality of the count-down to the post-oil era upon the Middle Eastern and North African oil exporters. So far the governments seem unwilling or unable to adapt and react. Furthermore, in the past oil has been used as a substitute for democracy. While the large oil revenues of the 1970s and early 1980s strengthened the position of autocratic rulers and weakened the private sector,repressive regimes have made Islam a source of criticism and opposition for the Western world. Following on from this, the book then looks forward to the problem of uniting the divergent interests in the spheres of oil and Islam into a cohesive whole. The book proposes that ideally Islamic governments would synchronise the depletion of oil reserves with investment in new productive assets. Islamic governments could also find ways to combine private, domestic and foreign interests in the oil industry. The main readership for this book will be policy-makers and professionals involved in development issues for Middle Eastern and North African affairs, and those with an interest in oil politics and Islamic studies.

Antonia Juhasz, a leading activist and expert on corporations and globalization, investigates the true state of the U.S. oil industry, uncovering its virtually unparalleled influence over our elected officials, its lack of regulatory oversight, and the highest profit rates in corporate history. She offers an immediate call to action - a formula for reining in the industry, cutting down its governmental powers, environmental destruction, and movement toward war while reducing global dependence on oil - and proposes a bold yet viable answer: break up the nation's leading oil companies. Drawing on her own detailed historical research, Juhasz explores the parallels between today's companies and Standard Oil, the most powerful corporation of the early 20th century, whose stranglehold on the economy and government was broken only by the vision and persistence of activists and like-minded politicians.

What lies beneath the ground? Our poor eyesight cannot penetrate even an inch into the soil, so for centuries, fortune-seekers have tried every way imaginable to see below the surface. Whether searching for mineral veins, groundwater, or buried treasure, people have looked for ways to avoid the plodding and backbreaking process of digging. They have followed dreams, seers, dowsing rods, and advice from the spirit world. When petroleum became an item of commerce, oil-hunters took to all these methods. Many built homemade inventions called doodlebugs, which they said could detect underground oil. It took a while, but science finally came up with its own toolbox of oil-finding methods in the early twentieth century. Finding oil is still expensive and risky, however. The old ways? They are mostly gone, but a few oil-dowsers still stride across fields with rod or pendulum, and no doubt people still consult dreams and psychics. And don’t pretend that you yourself haven’t wondered if that dowser might be onto something, or if that famous psychic can really tell where there is oil, or if that inventor stumbled onto a better way to detect underground oil. Of course you have. History is written by the victors, and scientists won over the oil industry—rightly so. But their accounts give short shrift to the rich history of less traditional ways to find oil. Although ignored, the records of nonscientific methods and their contributions to the oil business are well worthy of study. Lacking in science, they are rich in humanity. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear . . . wait, scratch that . . . these things are still going on. Join us in a visit to a place where dreams, seers, and spooks are taken seriously, where forked twigs dip toward oil pools and homemade oil-finding gizmos blink or beep with the promise of riches tucked just below the surface of the known world.

A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year on Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Republics The Russian oil industry-which vies with Saudi Arabia as the world's largest producer and exporter of oil, providing nearly 12 percent of the global supply-is facing mounting problems that could send shock waves through the Russian economy and worldwide. Wheel of Fortune provides an authoritative account of this vital industry from the last years of communism to its uncertain future. Tracking the interdependence among Russia's oil industry, politics, and economy, Thane Gustafson shows how the stakes extend beyond international energy security to include the potential threat of a destabilized Russia. "Few have studied the Russian oil and gas industry longer or with a broader political perspective than Gustafson. The result is this superb book, which is not merely a fascinating, subtle history of the industry since the Soviet Union's collapse but also the single most revealing work on Russian politics and economics published in the last several years." -Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs "The history of Russia's oil industry since the collapse of communism is the history of the country itself. There can be few better guides to this terrain than Thane Gustafson." -Neil Buckley, Financial Times

The perfect primer for both the layperson and the engineer, for the new hire and the old hand, describing, in easy-to-understand language, one of the biggest and most lucrative industries in the world. There is only one substance known to mankind that can cause wars, influence global economies, and make entire countries rich: petroleum. One teaspoon of the stuff carries enough energy to power a ton truck up a hill. It's in the news every single day, it influences our lives in ways that we cannot fathom, and it is the most important commodity in the world. But how much does the average person, even the average engineer, know about it? This book describes the petroleum industry, in easy-to-understand language, for both the layperson and engineer alike. From the economics of searching for oil and gas to the pitfalls of drilling and production, getting it out of the ground, into pipelines, into refineries, and, finally, into your gas tank, this book covers the petroleum industry like no other treatment before. There is coverage of pricing and the economics of this very important resource, as well, which is useful not only to engineers, but to economists and, really, anyone who uses it. From jet fuel to gasoline to natural gas and plastics, petroleum is one of the integral products of our lives. We are practically bathed it in from birth, our food is protected by it, and it even has healing properties. Learn all about this incredible substance and its fascinating history and highly debated future. An Introduction to Petroleum Technology, Economics, and Politics: * Gives a thorough summary of the petroleum and natural gas industry, from prospect to production to pipeline * New technologies, such as directional and underbalanced drilling, are covered, in easy-to-understand language * Useful not only for newcomers and laypersons, but for engineers and students, particularly those for whom English is a second language * Examines the basics of pricing and valuation

"The Politics of Oil-Producer Cooperation" is a comprehensive study of the behavior of political actors in the international oil market since 1971. In this study, Dag Harald Claes seeks to answer the question of what determines the cooperative behavior among oil-producing countries, and he also shows the benefits of approaching an empirical topic from several levels of analysis. Claes provides a case study demonstrating the problems of collective action in international politics, and he discusses multi-level approaches in studies of international relations, and international political economy.

This book constructs a history of Newtown Creek's industrial expansion during the period that began in the 1840s and continued through the early years of the 20th century. In that period, the production of reagent chemicals and refined materials near the center of modern-day New York City grew steadily, as practitioners, alert to European advances in chemical science, developed and applied increasingly sophisticated technologies. Innovations in methods of production, ready access to domestic and international markets, and sustained growth in volumes of production at Newtown Creek in the late 19th century had profound consequences for the practice of industrial chemistry in the United States and for the economic vitality of the City of New York. Industrial practice progressed from the recovery of animal tissues to the refining of crude petroleum and the production of high-purity copper and other metals from mineral ores. With attention to each company's technical expertise and principal products, this book examines the interdependence of the chemicals- and materials-producing industries that thrived along Newtown Creek's shores. The author recounts Newtown Creek's industrial history alongside the stories of well-known New Yorkers - Peter Cooper, Charles Pratt, John D. and William Rockefeller - and other less celebrated or less notorious characters. This book provides a valuable account of New York's history in the manufacture of reagent chemicals and refined fuels and metals and will appeal to researchers, scholars and historians interested in the early years of industrial chemistry.

This vast compilation references thousands of gas pump globes made for the major oil companies, from P-to-U (Pennzoil through Utoco) and their affiliates, as well as generic globes, and globes from independent companies and foreign firms. Over 1000 color photographs illustrate this voluminous text. Affiliated oil companies are listed under the major companies to which they are tied. A useful alphabetical cross reference to affiliated companies is provided to assist readers in quickly locating the smaller firms. This text also guides the reader through the distinctions between different gas pump globe types produced, lists reproduction globes manufactured over the years, and explains how the original, and highly collectible, gas pump globes of years gone by are valued in the collector's market. An index is also provided. Finally, values are provided for both the globes displayed in photographs and for the thousands that are listed in the text.

Microorganisms can be both beneficial and harmful to the oil and gas industry and therefore there is an increasing need for the oil industry to characterize, quantify and monitor microbial communities in real time. Oilfield Microbiology offers a fundamental insight into how molecular microbiological methods have enabled researchers in the field to analyze and quantify in situ microbial communities and their activities in response to changing environmental conditions. Such information is fundamental to the oil industry to employ more directed, cost-effective strategies to prevent the major problems associated with deleterious microbial activities (e.g., souring and biocorrosion), as well as to encourage beneficial microbe activity (e.g. oil bioremediation). The aim of the book is to understand how the technological advances in molecular microbiological methods over the last two decades are now being utilized by the oil industry to address the key issues faced by the sector. This book contains a comprehensive collection of chapters written by invited experts in the field from academia and industry and provides a solid foundation of the importance of microbes to the oil and gas industry. It is aimed at microbial ecologists, molecular biologists, operators, engineers, chemists, and academics involved in the sector.

Is there a low-carbon future for the oil industry? Faced with compelling new geological evidence, the petroleum industry can no longer ignore the consequences of climate change brought on by consumption of its products. Yet the global community will continue to burn fossil fuels as we manage the transition to a low-carbon economy. As a geologist, oil man, academic and erstwhile politician, Bryan Lovell is uniquely well placed to describe the tensions accompanying the gradual greening of the petroleum industry over the last decade. He describes how, given the right lead from government, the oil industry could be environmental saviors, not villains, playing a crucial role in stabilizing emissions through the capture and underground storage of carbon dioxide. Challenging prejudices of both the environmentalists and the oil industry, Lovell ultimately assigns responsibility to us as consumers and our elected governments, highlighting the need for decisive leadership and urgent action to establish an international framework of policy and regulation. Bryan Lovell comments in a US News & World Report article on Exxon's potential to 'go green' - click here Video from a performance of a folk song inspired by the book, written and performed by Mike Excell at the Woodman Pub, Ware, UK. (Recording courtesy of Tony Dawes.)

Between 1973 and 1980, the cost of crude oil rose suddenly and dramatically, precipitating convulsions in international politics. Conventional wisdom holds that international capital markets adjusted automatically and remarkably well: enormous amounts of money flowed into oil-rich states, and efficient markets then placed that new money in cash-poor Third World economies. David Spiro has followed the money trail, and the story he tells contradicts the accepted beliefs. Most of the sudden flush of new oil wealth didn't go to poor oil-importing countries around the globe. Instead, the United States made a deal with Saudi Arabia to sell it U.S. securities in secret, a deal resulting in a substantial portion of Saudi assets being held by the U.S. government. With this arrangement, the U.S. government violated its agreements with allies in the developed world. Spiro argues that American policymakers took this action to prop up otherwise intolerable levels of U.S. public debt. In effect, recycled OPEC wealth subsidized the debt-happy policies of the U.S. government as well as the debt-happy consumption of its citizenry.

Over the past two decades, "fracking" has led to a revolution in shale gas production. For some, shale gas promised economic opportunities, cheaper energy bills, and an alternative to coal. For others, shale gas was fool's gold. Critics contend that the shale boom has occurred in a regulatory Wild West, that the response has been fractured and ineffective, or that the harmful environmental and health consequences exceed the benefits from shale gas production. The Political Economy of Fracking argues that the criticism of the shale revolution has been misplaced. The authors use insights from a diversity of perspectives in political economy to understand why the shale boom occurred, who won in the race for shale, and who was left behind. The book explains how private property rights and entrepreneurs led to the shale boom. It contends that polycentric governance, which encourages a diversity of regulatory responses, is a virtue because it generates knowledge about the most appropriate ways to regulate shale development. Private property rights and political institutions that provide for local self-governance also helped to ensure that the benefits of shale gas production exceeded its costs. The authors make the case for fracking shale gas using evidence from shale-producing countries from around the world, comparing them to those that have fallen behind in the shale race. They show that private property rights and markets have been a source of innovation and dynamism and that a diversity of regulatory responses is appropriate to govern shale gas development. This book is insightful reading for academics and professionals interested in the shale boom, the fracking industry in general, and regulatory policy.

Firm-to-firm relationships, along with the overall structure of industry, have changed markedly over the past decades. Replacing the model of vertical integration with one of global business, firms have started to outsource more by using a wider global network. At the same time, they have begun to increase their control and coordination along the value chain to remain competitive, blurring the boundaries between companies. Understanding the nature of the firm and its role in coordinating the supply chain will help firms to better define global competitive strategies.. The challenges that lie ahead for global business render obsolete the traditional model of procuring each service without long-term supply chain management. Current trends suggest that in the future there will be even deeper supply chain integration in most industries. The Nature of the Firm in the Oil Industry aims to facilitate the understanding of 'the firm' via the analysis of the specific relationship between international oil companies, which are among the world's biggest firms and which act as 'core system integrators', and the oil services companies, which help to find, extract, produce and distribute oil along the petroleum industry supply chain. This relationship serves as an example of deep integration by core system integrators and provides insights into the change in the nature of the firm in the era of modern globalization. Aimed at researchers and academics, The Nature of the Firm in the Oil Industry offers a thorough examination of this relationship in an effort to shed light on the nature of the firm, both in the oil industry and in global business today. It is a humble attempt to better understand the firm in a crucial industry.

The key focus of the book is on engineering aspects of the subject field Updated, comprehensive text covering offshore drilling, production and field development and offers complete coverage of offshore oil and gas operations. Also, key maintenance issues like pigging, corrosion, subsidence are discussed.

Building on original research into the petroleum industry and on the theory of crimes of globalization, this book introduces the concept of Market Criminology: the criminology of preventable market-generated harms and the criminogenic effects of market rationality in variegated forms of capitalism. Ifeanyi Ezeonu explores the ascendance of the fundamentalist form of market economy in Nigeria; the complicity of the state political and security apparatuses in the corporate expropriation of the country's petroleum resource wealth; the deleterious effects of this neoliberal architecture on the local population, as well as community resistance strategies over the years. This book offers a major contribution to research on state-corporate crime and the crimes of the powerful. Key reading for scholars and students in the areas of criminology, international political economy and sociology, this book will also be rich resource for researchers and non-governmental agencies working in the areas of environmental protection, human rights and sustainable development in the Global South, especially the Sub-Saharan Africa.

This book provides a study of the transformation of the Latin American oil system from one in which the international oil companies dominated to one which is dominated by the main state oil companies, and an account of how some of the more important of the state companies have operated. This comprehensive guide to the evolution of the Latin American oil system combines in one volume a synthesis of material from secondary sources and original research and thus provides an invaluable reference for all concerned with the history and economy of Latin America and with the development and functioning of the international oil industry.

Introduction to Oil and Gas Operational Safety is aligned directly to the NEBOSH International Technical Certificate in Oil and Gas Operational Safety. Concisely written by a highly experienced team, this full colour reference provides complete coverage of the syllabus, including chapters on fire hazards, risk management and emergency response. It will ensure that you are fully equipped with the knowledge and understanding to respond and deal with the daily hazards you may face whilst working in the oil and gas industry. Complete with tables, case studies and self-test questions, this book will guide you through the principles of how to manage both offshore and onshore operational risks to prepare you for your exam and beyond.

There are few areas of economic policy-making in which the returns to good decisions are so high?and the punishment of bad decisions so cruel?as in the management of natural resource wealth. Rich endowments of oil, gas and minerals have set some countries on courses of sustained and robust prosperity; but they have left others riddled with corruption and persistent poverty, with little of lasting value to show for squandered wealth. And amongst the most important of these decisions are those relating to the tax treatment of oil, gas and minerals.

This book will be of interest to Economics postgraduates and researchers working on resource issues, as well as professionals working on taxation of oil, gas and minerals/mining.

Ownership and Control of Oil examines government decisions about how much control to exert over the petroleum industry, focusing on the role of National Oil Companies in the production of crude oil since the nationalizations in the 1970s. What are the motives for which some producing states opt for less and NOT more control of their oil production sector? When can International Oil Companies enter the upstream industry of producing states and under what conditions? The diversity of policy choices across producers provides the stage for this investigation: different theoretical explanations are confronted, with the empirical evidence, with the aim of finally proposing an interdisciplinary framework of analysis to explain who controls oil production around the world. This book is intended for both specialists and general readers who have an interest in the issue of government control of the petroleum industry. Due to its multidisciplinary approach, the book is aimed at a large academic public composed of scholars of Political Science, International Political Economy, Comparative Politics, and Middle East Area Studies. Moreover, this book should be relevant to international consultants, industry professionals and decision-makers in countries assessing their experience with existing control structures as well as the many countries in the process of joining the 'petroleum club' of oil producing nations.