For decades, studies of oil-related conflicts have focused on the effects of natural resource mismanagement, resulting in great economic booms and busts or violence as rebels fight ruling governments over their regions' hydrocarbon resources. In "Oil Sparks in the Amazon," Patricia I. Vasquez writes that while oil busts and civil wars are common, the tension over oil in the Amazon has played out differently, in a way inextricable from the region itself.
Oil disputes in the Amazon primarily involve local indigenous populations. These groups' social and cultural identities differ from the rest of the population, and the diverse disputes over land, displacement, water contamination, jobs, and wealth distribution reflect those differences. Vasquez spent fifteen years traveling to the oilproducing regions of Latin America, conducting hundreds of interviews with the stakeholders in local conflicts. She analyzes fifty-five social and environmental clashes related to oil and gas extraction in the Andean countries (Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia). She also examines what triggers local hydrocarbons disputes and offers policy recommendations to resolve or prevent them.
Vasquez argues that each case should be analyzed with attention to its specific sociopolitical and economic context. She shows how the key to preventing disputes that lead to local conflicts is to address structural flaws (such as poor governance and inadequate legal systems) and nonstructural flaws (such as stakeholders' attitudes and behavior) at the outset. Doing this will require more than strong political commitments to ensure the equitable distribution of oil and gas revenues. It will require attention to the local values and culture as well.

The arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the head of the Yukos oil company, on 25 October 2003, was a key turning point in modern Russian history. At that time Khodorkovsky was one of the world's richest and most powerful men, while Yukos had been transformed into a vast and lucrative oil company that was set to go global. On all counts, this looked like a success story, but it was precisely at this moment that the Russian authorities struck. After two controversial trials, attracting widespread international condemnation, Khodorkovsky was sentenced to fourteen years in jail. In this book, Richard Sakwa examines the rise and fall of Yukos, and the development of the Russian oil industry more generally. Sakwa analyses Russia's emergence as an energy superpower, and considers the question of the 'natural resource curse' and the use of energy rents to bolster Russia as a great power and to maintain the autonomy of the regime. Crucially this book also examines the relationship between Putin's state and big business during Russia's traumatic shift from the Soviet planned economy to the market system.It is a detailed analysis of one of the most dramatic confrontations between economic and political power in our era, full of human drama and moral dilemmas. It is also a study of political economy, with the market and state coming into confrontation. Above all, the 'Yukos affair' continues to shape contemporary Russian politics, with a weakened judiciary and insecure property rights. It traces the struggles of the Putin era as two visions of society came into conflict. The attack on Khodorkovsky had - and continues to have - far-reaching political and economic consequences but it also raises fundamental questions about the quality of freedom in Putin's Russia as well as in the world at large.

Despite its vast oil wealth, central Africa still struggles to sustain strong, inclusive economic growth or to generate sufficient employment opportunities, particularly for its fast-growing youth population. Drawing on new research, Oil Wealth in Central Africa lays out the macroeconomic and growth challenges facing the region; examines oil wealth management and its implications for poverty reduction; and includes four case studies that exemplify lessons learned.

Since the 1970s, urban communities across the country have had to face the wrenching process of economic restructuring. As the media announce the latest plant closings and politicians slam each other for outsourcing jobs, events are too often framed with a kind of economic determinism that denies agency to individual communities. To what degree can industrial cities in such an era still imagine themselves as authors of their own economic fates? In Rust Belt Resistance, author Perry Bush explores this question by focusing on the small midwestern city of Lima, Ohio. When British Petroleum (BP) announced late in 1996 that it would close and demolish its refinery there-which at the time employed 500 people with a $31.5 million payroll-economic desperation loomed. Lima's story, however, deviated from the usual sad narrative of other Midwest plant closures and began to assume a drama of its own. Led by an unlikely cast of characters-an uncommonly stubborn set of civic leaders, a conservative local newspaper publisher, and the city's determined and progressive mayor-Lima refused to take its place quietly on the industrial scrap heap. Instead of collapsing in despair, the refinery's workers continued to function as a model of industrial efficiency and hard work, partly in a determined effort to build profitability and preserve their jobs and also because hard work was the essence and tradition of this blue-collar town. In a story replete with a number of dramatic twists and turns, Bush describes how this collection of individuals led a resistant multinational corporation to a financial deal it could not refuse, located an acceptable buyer for the refinery, and saved not only a sizable share of the city's financial foundation but also the community's identity and self-respect. Rust Belt Resistance is a valuable instructional lesson for business and community leaders, scholars, and anyone interested in the continuing viability of American industrial cities.

This book covers the concepts of doing business of crude oil. This first edition volume will help the reader to put in place the crude oil trading strategies in the global markets ensure that the oil trading derivatives programs achieves its goals and does not add unexpected or unwanted risks to the oil companies. This book broadly covers the following contents: Overview of Global Oil Business; Roles of Shipping and Freight in Oil Trading; Trading of Oil in Global Market; Risk Management in Oil Industry; Upstream Oil Contracts. The readers will also get an inside to the financial energy markets particularly crude oil and its global business operations. In this book you will find fact, flavors and formula, each is a key element in running a successful financial risk strategy, integrated with the company's management goals. Therefore, this is a book to be read by Researchers, Students, oil traders and by the experts of financial and trading companies dealing in the crude oil business. Broadly, this book covers the concepts of crude oil business and the role of freight & shipping in the crude oil business.

This is a history of the abuses suffered by Africa through colonial, imperial and capitalistic scrambles for oil that have plagued the continent for centuries. France, the US, Portugal, Spain and other western nations have continually plundered Africa's resources, leading to political corruption and the annihilation of democracy that continues to this day. Extraordinary stories reach far into the depths of domination and control. Neo-colonialism in Gabon, Yankee Landlords of Cabinda and the World Bank in Chad are explored, as is the growth of kleptocracy, the rise of multinational corporations and the legacy of slavery. Concluding with evidence of how Africans have refused to remain passive in the face of such developments, forming movements to challenge this new attempt at domination, this book challenges our understanding of Africa, raising questions about the consequences of our reliance on foreign resources.

Written by the leading expert in UK petroleum economics, this study provides a new, unique, in-depth analysis of the development of British policies towards the North Sea oil and gas industry from the early 1960s to the early 1980s. Drawing on full access to the UK Government's relevant archives, Alex Kemp examines the thinking behind the initial legislation in 1964, the early licensing arrangements and the events leading up to the boundary delimitation agreements with Norway and other adjacent North Sea countries. He explains the debate in the later 1960s about the appropriate role of the state in the exploitation of the gas and oil resources, the prolonged negotiations resulting in the early long-term gas contracts, and the continuing debate on the role of the state following the large oil discoveries in the first half of the 1970s resulting in the formation of BNOC (British National Oil Corporation). The debate leading up to the introduction of, and subsequent increase in, the Petroleum Revenue Tax is fully explained as is the introduction of Supplementary Petroleum Duty. The author also outlines the debates around interventionist depletion policies and on how the oil revenues should best be utilised. The Official History of North Sea Oil and Gas will be of much interest to students of North Sea oil and gas, energy economics, business history, and British politics, as well as to petroleum professionals and policymakers.

The recent escalation in the violent conflict in the Niger Delta has brought the region to the forefront of international energy and security concerns. This book analyses the causes, dynamics and politics underpinning oil-related violence in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It focuses on the drivers of the conflict, as well as the ways the crises spawned by the political economy of oil and contradictions within Nigeria's ethnic politics have contributed to the morphing of initially poorly coordinated, largely non-violent protests into a pan-Delta insurgency. Approaching the issue from a number of perspectives, the book offers the most up-to-date and comprehensive analysis available of the varied dimensions of the conflict. Combining empirically-based and analytic chapters, it attempts to explain the causes of the escalation in violence, the various actors, levels and dynamics involved, and the policy challenges faced with regard to conflict management/resolution and the options for peace. It also examines the role of oil as a commodity of global strategic significance, addressing the relationship between oil, energy security and development in the Niger Delta.

What do subprime mortgages, Atlantic salmon dinners, SUVs and globalization have in common?
They all depend on cheap oil. And in a world of dwindling oil supplies and steadily mounting demand around the world, there is no such thing as cheap oil. Oil might be less expensive in the middle of a recession, but it will never be cheap again.
Take away cheap oil, and the global economy is getting the shock of its life.
From the ageing oilfields of Saudi Arabia and the United States to the Canadian tar sands, from the shopping malls of Dubai to the shuttered auto plants of North America and Europe, from the made-in-China products on the shelves of the Wal-Mart down the road to the collapse of Wall Street giants, everything is connected to the price of oil
Interest rates, carbon trading, inflation, farmers' markets and the wave of trade protectionism washing up all over the world in the wake of various economic stimulus and bailout packages - they all hinge on the new realities of a world where demand for oil eventually outstrips supply.
According to maverick economist Jeff Rubin, there will be no energy bailout. The global economy has suffered oil crises in the past, but this time around the rules have changed. And that means the future is not going to be a continuation of the past. For generations we have built wealth by burning more and more oil. Our cars, our homes, our whole world has been getting bigger in the cheap-oil era. Now it is about to get smaller.
There will be winners as well as losers as the age of globalization comes to an end. The auto industry will never recover from this oil-induced recession, but other manufacturers will be opening up mothballed factories. Distance will soon cost money, and so will burning carbon - both will bring long-lost jobs back home. We may not see the kind of economic growth that globalization has brought, but local economies will be revitalized, as will our cities and neighborhoods.
Whether we like it or not, our world is about to get a whole lot smaller.

"From the Hardcover edition."

Oil-producing countries have received a windfall from rapidly rising oil prices. In this ""Occasional Paper"", IMF experts examine the fiscal response of oil-producing countries to the recent oil boom and the role of special fiscal institutions (SFIs) in fiscal management. They review the experiences of selected countries and draw some general lessons. In doing so, they link findings on best practice in the design of SFIs with broader fiscal management advice.

The book, a joint work of the African Development Bank and the African Union, presents a comprehensive analysis of the oil and gas resources in Africa. It uniquely highlights, through country examples, and with an African focus but a global perspective, the specific challenges and constraints facing the continent as a whole in the exploitation and utilization of its oil and gas resources. It partly draws on a model that simulates the impact of high oil prices on African economies, a model that was developed by the Research Department of the Bank in a separate study. The roles of AfDB and AU are analyzed, considering their differing, but complementary, mandates geared towards the development of the continent. Finally, the book includes recommendations on the future directions and actions for maximizing benefits of Africa's oil and gas resources.

""Growing Apart" is an important and distinguished contribution to the literature on the political economy of development. Indonesia and Nigeria have long presented one of the most natural opportunities for comparative study. Peter Lewis, one of America's best scholars of Nigeria, has produced the definitive treatment of their divergent development paths. In the process, he tells us much theoretically about when, why, and how political institutions shape economic growth."
--Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution ""Growing Apart" is a careful and sophisticated analysis of the political factors that have shaped the economic fortunes of Indonesia and Nigeria. Both scholars and policymakers will benefit from this book's valuable insights."
--Michael L. Ross, Associate Professor of Political Science, Chair of International Development Studies, UCLA"Lewis presents an extraordinarily well-documented comparative case study of two countries with a great deal in common, and yet with remarkably different postcolonial histories. His approach is a welcome departure from currently fashionable attempts to explain development using large, multi-country databases packed with often dubious measures of various aspects of 'governance.'"
--Ross H. McLeod, Editor, "Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies""This is a highly readable and important book. Peter Lewis provides us with both a compelling institutionalist analysis of economic development performance and a very insightful comparative account of the political economies of two highly complex developing countries, Nigeria and Indonesia. His well-informed account generates interesting findings by focusing on the ability of leaders inboth countries to make credible commitments to the private sector and assemble pro-growth coalitions. This kind of cross-regional political economy is often advocated in the profession but actually quite rare because it is so hard to do well. Lewis's book will set the standard for a long time."--Nicolas van de Walle, John S. Knight Professor of International Studies, Cornell University Peter M. Lewis is Associate Professor and Director of the African Studies Program, Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies.

In 1984, the oil, chemical and atomic workers began a 5-year campaign to win back the jobs of its members locked out by the BASF Corp. in Geismar, Louisiana. The multiscale campaign involved coalitions with local environmentalists as well as international solidarity from environmental and religious organizations. The local coalition which helped break the lockout was maintained and expanded in the 1990s. This alliance is one of numerous labor-community coalitions to emerge increasingly over the past 20 years.""Labor-Environmental Coalitions: Lessons from a Louisiana Petrochemical Region"" traces the development of the Louisiana Labor-Neighbor Project from 1985 to the present, within the context of a long history of divisions between labor and community in the U.S. The Project continued after the lockout, thriving during 1990s, expanding from one community to four counties to include 20 local member organizations, and broadening its agenda from the original jobs crisis and pollution problems to address a wide range of worker, environmental health, and economic justice issues."" Labor-Environmental Coalitions"" explores the dynamics of the Louisiana coalition to offer lessons for other coalition efforts. The book seeks to understand coalitions as a necessary strategy to counteract the dominant forces of capitalist development. The author contends that the Labor-Neighbor Project, like labor-community coalitions generally, created a unique blend of politics shaped by the geographic nature industry's politics; by the relative openness of government; and by the class experience of labor and community members.The Louisiana Project demonstrates that for labor-community coalitions to thrive they must broaden their agenda, strengthen their leadership and coalition-building skills, and develop access to multiscale resources. The author argues that for labor-community coalitions to have longer term political impact, they should adopt an explicitly progressive approach by building a broader class and cultural leadership, and by demanding state and corporate accountability on economic, public health, and environmental justice issues.

This book is written by Daniel Johnston. International exploration and production is challenging and exciting. Negotiating with governments and understanding the dynamics of their fiscal systems and/or production sharing contracts can mean the difference between success and failure. Long-time industry consultant, negotiator and lecturer, Daniel Johnston, provides an extremely clear and practical perspective on: international exploration economics and risk analysis, petroleum fiscal system analysis and design, contract negotiations, and, economic, financial and accounting aspects of: production sharing contracts, and royalty/tax systems.""International Exploration Economics, Risk, and Contracts Analysis"" is an anthology of articles from Johnston's column in the ""Petroleum Accounting and Financial Management Journal"" (""PAFMJ"") - Institute of Petroleum Accounting, University of North Texas. While some chapters date back a number of years, the key chapters and concepts have been dramatically updated with detailed examples. It is a collection of valuable articles gathered in one book. It is fully updated with detailed examples.

Vaughn P. Shannon argues that US foreign policy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict has been determined at three levels of analysis: that of systemic strategic context, that of domestic politics, and that of individual decision-makers. In this book he explores the role of each level of influence, as well as the implications for the posture which the US has chosen. Reflecting changing circumstances, the volume examines the Cold War, the Gulf War and the new 'War on Terror' and how they have each placed differing pressures on US policymakers as they strive to maintain the ultimate strategic goal of preserving regional oil from becoming dominated by hostile forces. It is suitable for courses on American foreign policy, world politics and politics of the Middle East.

Spindletop. The word conjures images of Texas oil: roustabouts, roughnecks, oil barons, and endless rows of wooden derricks. The discovery of oil at Spindletop in 1901 revolutionized the oil and drilling industry in the United States: before Spindletop's seventy thousand barrels of oil a day, no other well in the United States had produced more than three thousand barrels in a whole month. In Spindletop Boom Days Paul Spellman weaves together first-person narratives to tell the story of this moment in history and to describe the day-to-day life of those involved with the Spindletop gusher. These are stories of people, men and women of differing backgrounds and ethnicity, who touched the lodestone of the American frontier character. Some were culturally polished; most were ragged and forthright and completely honest. They were self-reliant to a fault, but they knew exactly when and how to cooperate in the necessities of the moment. They were fiercely independent and democratic in their beliefs. Although many stayed, most were transient in their lifestyle, arriving with great expectations, working with compulsive diligence, and moving on--some without a trace--when the next horizon beckoned. Spellman provides informative accounts of innovation in the petroleum industry such as new drilling techniques, the use of "drilling mud," and improvements in derrick construction. Through the experiences of the men and women who lived it, from Big Hill to Sour Lake to Batson, we learn about the deadly fires and other dangers of working on the oil rigs, unruliness in the streets, and the comedy and tragedy of daily life. And Spellman entertains with stories of characters such as former Texas governor Jim Hogg and other legendary names in Texas' oil industry, including Walter and Jim Sharp, David Beatty, and Joseph Cullinan.Like no other story of Spindletop and the oil boom, this narrative history is a "slice of life" seen through the eyes of the men and women who lived through those rowdy, entertaining, exciting days in Southeast Texas.

Maples presents an organized look at yield data and properties of products from refinery processes, how to use this information in performing various process economics studies, and discusses operating and capital costs for economic evaluation of both single processes and complete refineries. Yield correlations are presented for all of the important commercially-established petroleum refinery processes, each accompanied by operating requirements and capital cost of a typical unit. Here the user has all of the information required to perform a preliminary economic evaluation. For each process yield correlation a simplified process flow diagram and brief process description is given. Contents: Correlation methodology Crude oils, hydrocarbons, and refinery products Refinary processing overview Energy resources and transportation fuels The environment and the refinery Crude oil and residual oil processing Solvent deasphalting Visbreaking and aquaconversion Delayed coking Fluid coking/flexicoking Heavy distillate processing Fluid catalylic and heavy oil cracking Hydrocracking Hydrotreating Light distillate processing Naphtha desulfurization Catalytic reforming Light hydrocarbon processing Isomerization Alkylation Catalytic polymerization and dehydration Oxygenates Treating and other auxiliary processes Aromatics extraction Hydrogen manufacture Sour water stripping Sweetening Acid gas removal Sulfur recovery Tail gas cleanup Water treatment and waste disposal Blending Process economics Economics.

Reflecting the many changes in the technology of the oil and gas industry since its last publication in 1984, this new edition of Modern Petroleum Technology is the most authoritative and thoroughly up-to-date review of technical expertise employed across the whole of the international oil and gas industry.
Written by leading international experts from industry and academia, all entries have been updated and many new entries have been added for this 6th edition.
The work is divided into two volumes:
Upstream and Downstream.
Upstream examines the different stages of the exploration and production processes involved in the location and extraction of raw materials, including the latest applications employed in modern seismic technology and the production of heavy oils. Downstream covers the process of refining the raw material, and producing and supplying the end product, from refineries to service stations. Both volumes deal with all aspects of their area of petroleum technology, from the innovations in technology to the environmental issues surrounding its practical application.
Modern Petroleum Technology considers the current challenges and opportunities presented by new technology, enabling everyone in the industry, from the busy chief executive to the petroleum engineer, to stay in touch with developments outside their own area of expertise.
Modern Petroleum Technology's concise and comprehensive overview will also be of special value to analysts, strategists, lecturers and students, oil and gas consultants, and legal and financial service providers.

Why Regulate Utilities? informs and revises economic thought about regulation and regulatory change. Showing that state regulation governed the behavior of local politicians as well as utilities, it gives empirical muscle to the idea that regulatory commissions act like administered contracts. Synthesizing and extending the new institutional economics, it builds a comprehensive model of institutional change and political economy. A history book, Why Regulate Utilities? promotes sensitivity to a relevant past. Highlighting institutional arrangements once hidden by the shadows of the past, it demonstrates how utility markets operated in the years before state regulation. Emphasizing the importance of historical context, Werner Troesken suggests that producer support for a particular law or regulation need not imply that the law or regulation is inefficient or contrary to the public interest. Using the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Chicago gas industry as a case in point, Troesken argues that large and irrevocable investments pervaded the gas industry. These investments created an economic prison that bound consumers, local politicians, and producers. If producers did not like the regulations established by local politicians, they were stuck; similarly, if Chicagoans did not like gas rates and service, they could not solicit the services of other producers without incurring huge costs. A battle was bound to ensue: consumers demanded relief from exorbitant rates; politicians launched antitrust suits and passed rate ordinances; producers appealed to the state legislature and the courts for relief. Ultimately Illinois created a state commission to regulate Chicago gas companies, moving the battle out of the legislature and courts and relieving them of these costly, time-consuming battles. Werner Troesken is Assistant Professor of History and Economics, University of Pittsburgh.

Oil has played a major role in Venezuela's economy since the first gusher was discovered along Lake Maracaibo in 1922. As Miguel Tinker Salas demonstrates, oil has also transformed the country's social, cultural, and political landscapes. In "The Enduring Legacy," Tinker Salas traces the history of the oil industry's rise in Venezuela from the beginning of the twentieth century, paying particular attention to the experiences and perceptions of industry employees, both foreign and Venezuelan. He reveals how class ambitions and corporate interests combined to reshape many Venezuelans' ideas of citizenship. Middle-class Venezuelans embraced the oil industry from the start, anticipating that it would transform the country by introducing modern technology, sparking economic development, and breaking the landed elites' stranglehold. Eventually Venezuelan employees of the industry found that their benefits, including relatively high salaries, fueled loyalty to the oil companies. That loyalty sometimes trumped allegiance to the nation-state.

North American and British petroleum companies, seeking to maintain their stakes in Venezuela, promoted the idea that their interests were synonymous with national development. They set up oil camps--residential communities to house their workers--that brought Venezuelan employees together with workers from the United States and Britain, and eventually with Chinese, West Indian, and Mexican migrants as well. Through the camps, the companies offered not just housing but also schooling, leisure activities, and acculturation into a structured, corporate way of life. Tinker Salas contends that these practices shaped the heart and soul of generations of Venezuelans whom the industry provided with access to a middle-class lifestyle. His interest in how oil suffused the consciousness of Venezuela is personal: Tinker Salas was born and raised in one of its oil camps.

In 1973, the United States and other western countries were shocked by the Arab oil embargo. Lines formed at gasoline pumps; fuel stations ran out of supply; prices skyrocketed; and the nation realized its vulnerability to decisions made by leaders of countries half a world away. In response, the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which was signed into law by President Gerald Ford in 1975, has become the nation's primary tool of energy policy. Following its first major use during the Persian Gulf War of 1991, officials and policy makers at the highest levels increasingly turned to the SPR to stave off shortages and mitigate rising energy prices. Author and historian Bruce A. Beaubouef examines, for the first time, the interactions that have shaped the development of the SPR. He argues that the SPR has survived because it is a passive regulatory tool that serves to protect energy consumers and petroleum consumption and does not compete with the American oil industry. Indeed, by the late twentieth century, as American import dependency reached new heights, refiners and transporters increasingly relied upon the SPR as a ready resource to help maintain feedstock when supplies were tight or disrupted. In a time of continued vulnerability, this definitive work will be of interest to those concerned with the history, economy, and politics of the oil and gas industry, as well as to historians and practitioners of oil and energy policy.

In Offshore Software Development: Making It Work, hands-on managers of Offshore solutions help you answer these questions: -What is Offshore and why is it an IT imperative? -What do you need to do to successfully evaluate an Offshore solution? -How do you avoid common pitfalls? -How do you confront security and geopolitical risk? -How do you handle issues related to displaced workers? The author applies her considerable experience in the analysis of such Offshore issues as the financial growth of the Offshore industry, keys to success in initiating a program, choosing and managing vendors, risk mitigation, and employee impacts. A detailed program checklist outlines the steps for successful Offshore execution, providing real-world exposure and guidance to a movement that has become a fixture in the IT realm. About the Author Tandy Gold is a 20-year veteran of the technology industry who is focused on entrepreneurial consulting and innovation. As part of her responsibilities in implementing the first Offshore initiative for a large financial institution, she created a monthly Offshore interest group. Comprised of Offshore program managers from Fortune 100 firms, together they represent more than 40 years of experience in Offshore.

Corporate Social Responsibility Failures in the Oil Industry directly challenges the oil industry's claims of corporate good citizenship, now widely advanced as part of a global public relations initiative. The volume spans the industry's reach, from the troubled waters of the UK offshore Continental Shelf, with its horrendous legacy of the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster, to the inhospitable shores of Newfoundland with its own tragic legacy of lost lives; to the new frontier of oil corporate colonialism in the former Soviet Union and the icy plains of Alaska. The central theme of violations of basic labour rights and of health and environmental protection standards will make uncomfortable reading in the boardroom. It is equally essential reading for those who seek to improve the position of workers and industries within the oil industry's global reach.

The National Petroleum Council (NPC) emerged out of the close cooperation between the petroleum industry and the federal government during World War II. An industry-financed advisory committee designed to work closely with the Department of the Interior, it enjoyed a remarkable independence from political or financial pressures. Including representatives of all phases of the petroleum business, the NPC could reach deep within the industry for information on vital issues. In the last fifty-plus years, the Council has evolved into a voice of the marketplace, analyzing conditions in the petroleum industry at the request of the government and publishing its findings in reports widely considered authoritative and useful.
Three uniquely qualified historians here chronicle the development and contributions of the NPC to both the energy industry and the American market. While technological advances, skyrocketing world demand, the rise of OPEC, and far-reaching regulatory initiatives have fundamentally transformed the petroleum industry's structure and operating environment, the National Petroleum Council has remained a reliable source of authoritative information. Joseph A. Pratt, William H. Becker, and William McClenahan, Jr., analyze the choices and strategies that have given the Council the adaptability and resilience to survive and remain important.
The authors look also at the actual reports generated by the Council--more than two hundred studies to date--and the impact they have had on both government and business. They examine the NPC's ability to tap information and personnel from all sectors of the industry and to fund from industry resources studies that would have exceeded the pockets of the federal government. They consider the way the Council has managed to encompass the varied viewpoints within a diverse, highly competitive industry, and particularly to bridge the sharp historical division between the "majors" and the "independents." Finally, the authors analyze the one political concern that has remained constant for the industry: antitrust.
This engagingly written book not only sheds light on the petroleum industry and its regulatory context, but also addresses the larger questions of the U.S. government's relations with the industries it regulates.

The practical examples and step-by-step calculations in the book, partnered with illustrations and diagrams, make the text easy to read and understand. Johnston does an excellent job clarifying international oilfield taxation and regulation in the same way he explained oilfield accounting in his other PennWell title, Oil Company Financial Analysis in Nontechnical Language. Covers everything from historical development of contracts to terminology of accounting and negotiations, to threshold field size analysis, to arithmetic behind contract terms, and much more.