Crude Oil

Oil begins in the rock - organic matter buried and cooked for millions of years - and ends in power. The book starts with what crude oil is and how nature makes it, follows the industry from the first wells through refining to the traders and benchmarks that give a barrel its price, and then turns to power: OPEC, the petrostates, oil and war, and what oil did to the societies built on it.

111 pages · Published November 2026 · Free to read as a PDF