1 comments about Fundamentals of Petroleum.

1. If you're new to the petroluem industry and would like to learn about it or seek to make it a career this is the book to start with period; nothing out there better.

5 comments about Oil on the Brain: Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline.

1. Lisa Margonelli has done an outstanding job of weaving a cultural line from our commuter-car gas tanks to the dozens of oil producing regions around the globe. What is presaged here through hundreds of 'extreme' interviews is true again - an overwhelming challenge is faced by historic players in the development game, given rising stakes and awakening societies. Lisa's often amusing global tour penetrates the walls of oil-state compounds around the world, breaks thru cultural barriers outside the walls, and brings it all home in a polished journal. If you need a reason to lay-off the gas pedal - this book packs plenty - read it and start seeing the world in a whole new way!



2. Don't be put off by the frivolous title. This is a really well-written account of a young lady's travels and adventures as she (and we) learn about nearly every aspect of the oil industry.
   
   Ms. Margonelli somehow managed to charm her way into interviews (lasting in some cases days and weeks) with figures including Nigerian warlords, Iranian oil engineers, and even the legendary Michel Halbouty. These are intermingled with accounts of exploding electricity boxes, death-defying rides on Nigerian motorbike taxis, fearless walks in Tehran narrowly avoiding maniac car drivers, etc. But there are also clear explanations of the economics and engineering of oil, from the NYMEX to an oil field in Chad, with a huge number of footnotes referencing sources like the WSJ, NY Times, and UN and World Bank reports.
   
   I would roughly categorize the book as "Maureen Dowd meets Daniel Yergen" (with apologies to both of whom I am a big fan...)



3. Like countless Americans, you pull up to a pump and begin the drudgery of filling your car up with gas (while watching the numbers tick higher and ever higher). As you leave, you can't help but shake your fist at the station. Under your breath you damn the brazen oil companies and their obscene profits.
   
   Lisa Margonelli takes the reader on a long journey through the serpentine infrastructure of mighty oil. Along the way, Margonelli describes and uncovers the irony, the blood politics, the sheer oppressive scope of what it takes to get oil from point A to point B: A sort of reverse engineering to dispirited communities, hopeful venues, nations on the brink of crippling crisis and even great fortunes. From somewhere far, far away and remote to your swollen gas tank.
   
   Aside from spending time in New York, California and Texas, Margonelli treks her way to Chad, Venezuela, Niger, Iran, and China.
   
   You can't have your oil and the price of that fill-up without some history; most of it is boom and bust, bloody, contentious and conniving. The price of gas reflects all these things and more: A convoluted national infrastructure, involvement with petty warlords, a dubious foreign policy, and environmental impact. We love our cars and our roads to somewhere. The price to get to that "somewhere" is something to contemplate in more ways than one.
   
   There is a chapter on the SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve) which I will admit I knew some of. Margonelli goes into greater detail and I did learn a thing or two. I found it to be very interesting. A chapter on the New York Mercantile Exchange, where oil is traded, is also very informative and revealing.
   
   Overall, I appreciated Margonelli's balanced and vivid writing style. I found her to be fair and straight-forward.
   
   This book is highly recommended.



4. This book starts right at home, and slowly moves farther and farther away, finally ending up in China. It looks at the workings, psychology, and economics of our national addiction--gasoline. It shows, unbiased, the implications of US oil hegemony on our country, the third world, and covers what is happening in China, which will forever change the global oil market. If you are curious about why oil prices are so high, this book gives you the background needed to come to the conversation and understand what is happening. It is too bad this book wasn't finished a year and a half later so the more recent events would be included, I am looking forward to the second edition.



5. Not much really here. Author Margonelli tries to put a recognizable face on the economics and politics of oil, but I'm not sure I want one. She examines how the effects of the business entangle gas station owners, oil distributors, refinery workers, drilling rig personnel. The effort sets out to first-hand experience "Oil Adventures From..." one sector to the other. Presumably, the oil connection among them is important to all of us as drivers; but she leaves us flat as she relates, so often in soft tones and flowery descriptives, the personal side of each of the participants, just as planned. How does she do this?
   
   --By visiting actual sites, interviewing, gathering information, taking notes, nosingaround, as a good reporter might...but overall, she comes up with flimsy, rather so-what results.
   
   This no in-depth, investigation of how/why oil gets from there to here or how prices actually get set. It probably wasn't intended to be that way, but you don't know that 'till your finished. Instead, it's a quiet, low-ley drama of vague inner turmoil, interpersonal struggles, sob stories, political escapades, emotion, excuses and other personal minutia mostly unrelated to the mechanisms that actually drive oil companies,the government energy offices, auto manufacturers and the consumers at the pump.
   
   Expect to read of detailed workings of "oil" and its effect on cultures around the world? Not here. You get instead sketchy current and historical perspectives of distant 3rd-world, oil-rich countries...and, when closer to home, movie-like scripts on the "human side" of the business, presented in a lovely style that would do soap opera writers proud. No doubt the author's got a pleasant, flowing writing style
   (maybe more suited for a novel), but it's annoyingly out of place in a book designed to reveal what we, as drivers, need to know about oil, oil companies, oil countries and the complex mechanics of getting oil as gas to a nearby pump.
   
   She visits Nigeria, Iran, Venezuela in first-hand efforts to bring out her point, ...but by the time she's described her having tea with some high official of Chad, interest is gone. Taking herself and her book too seriously, she puts a useless, literary glow on her travels...as in Iran, where she describes the scene this way:
   
   "Below us, the Gulf glistens as if it's made of grayish,
   green jelly. The rippling waves form unexpectant
   herringbone patterns, and sometimes the shadow of our
   helicopter appears below. The moisture in the air reflects
   sunlight so that we seem to be flying through illuminated
   cotton. A little fishing boat shaped like a curled slipper,
   or maybe a melon rind, appears and disappears below us."
   
   [Page 219] As reader, this is all quite pretty to imagine...but come on! Green jelly? Lisa, you should have stuck with Sgt. Friday's strategy for getting to the bottom of things: "Just the facts, m'am. Just the facts," please! Instead, the author's facts are forever mixed in with with needless, distracting, descriptives (like the above)...often making the read cumbersome and slow-going.
   
   Regarding China (She was there, too.), Margonelli spends her time describing the genius engineering faces she met who raved about new hydrogen-cell cars they're developing, like the Aspire and "a little yellow car shaped like an egg." These will, they say, revolutionize the car industry and put them on the Big Map, making China THE Great World Power. In passing, she mentions how Shell and GM are involved...but
   doesn't get past the surface interests of these two stealth players. Incidentally,unlike the chapters on Venezuela, Chad, Iran, Nigeria, author Lisa oddly makes only minor references to China's oil industry. There's nothing about: who controls it, how it controls, whom it effects...topics this reader was looking forward to getting to. --Wonder why "oil," of all things, was almost entirely left out of her China picture....
   
   A lightweight read is not what you'd expect from the eye-catching cover title. The book gets high on fancy descriptive, but stays low on purposeful focus. Each chapter seems without conclusion. Awkwardly, too, the chapters together have no unifying theme...as we get no across-the-board reason for all the location hopping she's done to put the book together. What Margonelli was getting at is anybody's guess...other than it's people who work in the business. (!) After expending, by the author's own casual admission, 3000 gallons of gasoline in her travels to discover the human side of the oil industry, she's come up with a faceless yawn. Although occasionally interesting reading, I found I really don't care much to learn about individual oil folk. In this day of
   high-tide pump prices and slow-moving inflation, this reader'd much rather get to know "why," "how," "where." --Definitely, not the "who."
   
   [--But if, on the other hand, the oil "Who" is what you're really after, you might definitely enjoy the read....]

2 comments about Fundamentals of Reservoir Engineering (Developments in Petroleum Science).

1. This is a great classic reference in the area of Reservoir Engineering that can be recommended to anyone working in the area.
   
   I would mention, though, that this manufacturing run seems to have had a binding problem. The first 16 page sheets are out of order (e.g. page 3 occurs after page 6). I alerted Amazon and returned one book, but the second copy they sent is the same...



2. This is one of the best books abour reservoir engineering ever wrote, this men, really knew how to write down the art of reservoir in a very clear and complete language.

5 comments about Discovery!: The Search for Arabian Oil.

1. I enjoy very much this book that presents, well documented, all the difficulties and problems faced by the group of geologist and engineers, looking for oil, who did the initial contract, exploration and evaluations in Saudi Arabia, and the efforts and ingenuity used to solve them. An excellent consultation book for earth scientists and studious of the oil industry.



2. America and the Middle East. Who would have thought our country's future would ever be so linked to events in that troubled region? Our children's lives, our grandchildren's prosperity, our national reputation at risk?
   But there was a time when Americans were welcomed and respected in the Middle East. More than 50 years ago, the late Wallace Stegner wrote about the bigger-than-life adventures of Americans involved in the pioneering search for oil in the desert frontiers of Arabia, just before and during WWII. The first U.S. edition of this book by the Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist is a welcome reminder that ordinary, open-minded, hard-working Americans do have the know-how to negotiate, work through differences, cooperate and partner sucessfully with people of another culture for our mutual benefit. And in "Discovery! The Search for Arabian Oil", Stegner manages to gift us with this valuable lesson from America's and Arabia's shared history in a colorful, witty and exciting tale that reads like a novel.



3. Stegner does an incredible job of encapsulating Saudi-US history by covering a decade in these few hundred pages. His history of the region is peppered with both mundane facts and figures and in-depth characterizations that are part of Stegner's legacy. The author also focuses interestingly on the details of oil exploration and drilling and spends almost an entire chapter on how the men of the oil camp eventually learned how to cap a broken oil well that had caught fire and killed several people.
   
   He also characterizes the people of the time in his descriptive literary way. From the college graduate men trekking through the deserts with their Bedouin guides to the wildcatters - blue collar American men experienced in oil drilling, to the King, royal family, Bedouins and unfamiliar culture and religion of Saudi Arabia in the 1930s.
   
   What is most remarkable about the book is that it forces the reader to accept the idea that the men and women involved in Saudi Arabia's modern historical beginnings were hardworking, trusting, culturally sensitive, family-oriented people whose goal was the mutually beneficial cooperation of two peoples with very little in common.
   
   It is easy to find any book purporting to be a "true" history of the "evil" American oil corporations and their insidious inner dealings with the Al-Saud family on any shelf of a bookstore or college classroom today, particularly after the US's frontpage "failures" in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Iran.
   
   It is difficult to take such portrayals at face value without seeing their uninformed emotionally charged and frankly mainstream political agenda with its tongue in cheek references.
   
   Drilled into everyone's base emotions today are the binary slogans: Oil company = bad. Capitalism = bad. USA involvement in the Middle East = bad. Unfortunately these statements are all put to shame under the deft hands of Wallace Stegner, whose book was written over 40 years ago.
   
   The ease in accepting the search for Arabian oil as a well-intentioned benign project that can actually be a force of advancement (vs. exploitation say) is borne out of Stegner's careful and emotional portrayals of the personal lives of the people involved. In that small amount of space the reader is forced to reconcile his or her politics on a grand generalistic level and confront the reality of the personal space.
   
   In accepting Stegner's vision the reader must confront his or her own political generalizations about the world and must accept it as a much more complicated beast than some simplistic pedantry regarding good vs. evil. The beauty in the author's writing is his ability to paint this complex vision of two worlds on a collision course with history in such an accessible and poetic manner, yet one which indeed fleshes out this complexity and innocence.



4. ...of this book written by Philip L. Fradkin in the San Francisco Chronicle lead me to Stegner's work. Fradkin's article was not actually about the CONTENT of the book so much as the circumstances surrounding its commissioning and publication. The conclusion is stated in his review's title: that the work should have stayed "hidden", that is, not published at all, and that would have been a real tragedy.
   
   The circumstances surrounding the work's publications are covered quite well by Thomas W. Lippman in a Foreword to the work. It is clear that Stegner was paid by the corporate predecessor to ARAMCO to write an account of the first days of oil exploration in the Kingdom. It is also clear that certain "politically sensitive" portions of his work were revised or deleted, and that his consent to this process was obtained. Like many others, I would love to have read the unexpurgated version, but the only choice is the one available, with some "punches pulled," some "sensitivities" glossed over. Ah, if there were only similar type Forewords that explained the background and biases of the numerous "Saudi-bashing" books that have been published.
   
   In reading this book I could not help think of Edgar Snow's "A Journey to the Beginning." Snow was fresh out of journalism school, went to China for a short period, but stayed over 13 years, and in the process met, and later portrayed the creators of modern China, Mao Tse-Tung and Chou En Lai. Snow's work remains essential if one is to understand one of the most important countries in the world today. Stegner's circumstances were considerably different than Snow's, but he too had unique access, and produced a portrait of some of the characters who "were attendants at the birth of a world." (page 151). There are the delightful descriptive nuggets of a great writer, such as "...he saw all the stigmata of great hurry, great expansion, the pipeline heading our for Ras Tanura..." Stegner's assessments and conclusions concerning one of the more contentious relationships in the world today, between the United States and the very heartland of oil and Islam, Saudi Arabia is worthy of reflection and consideration: "... which is the one consistently disseminated by hostile propagandists, reflects one aspect of the emergent unrest that has turned much of the Arab world away from the United States. It must be challenged, for unwilling as a democracy may be to take its own side in an argument, and meekly as it may believe the worst interpretations of its own motives, American oil development in the Middle East has been, all things considered, responsible and fair." (Introduction xxv)
   
   I read Stegner's work immediately after having read the "flip side" of these momentous events, one Saudi's account of the creation of ARAMCO, AbdelRahman Munif's "Cities of Salt." Both works are essential for understanding one of the most important relationships in the world today - and it would be a real tragedy if either were suppressed, as Fradkin advocates in the case of "Discovery!" Suppressing books should be something that "other countries do," not the United States.



5. Discovery is an entertaining and educating read about the world that we have forgotten so easily. It would be nice to know what didn't make the final version before print, however, what is written is refreshing and well done. Stegner makes you realize how influencial anyone can be.

No comments about Synthetic Fuels Handbook (McGraw-Hill Handbooks).

1 comments about The Age of Oil: What They Don't Want You to Know About the World's Most Controversial Resource.

1. The Prize is still the classic book on the history of the Oil industry, but Yergin's masterpiece is around 20 years old. With The Age of Oil Maugeri has written a worthy sequel/successor.
   
   The first part of the book concentrates on the history of the industry including the powerplay of the nations and the Seven Sisters. He writes a good and readable prose and the addition of 20 years history makes it an interesting read.
   
   The second part is the more controversial one. He argues quite convincingly that there is no shortage of Oil and that Peak Oil theorists are basically doing not much more than repeating history ( we saw similar movements around Harold Ickes in the 40's and at the time of the big oil shocks. In all instances always followed by a wide over supply).
   
   At the same time he argues also that there is no divine right for low prices and that with more people demanding energy prices will go up ( which we are seeing today). The Governments will have to be increasinly active in promoting more careful consumption habits and that is a wise thought.
   
   In short, a good and comprehensive overview provided by a top class industry insider.

3 comments about Formulas and Calculations for Drilling, Production and Workover, Second Edition.

1. Norton Lapeyrouse has done a good job accumulating those hard to formulas that you need in the middle of the night. We have all been on location and needed to calculate some aspect in drilling of a well and can't remember the exact formula. Well this book has just about everything you want. It ranks up there with Service Company's Tech Facts books and a more.



2. Great Book. Found a huge variety of topics covered. I liked it as a quick reference guide.



3. Worth Buying, wouldn't mind to buy it even if it was more expensive than that price.
   
   An excellent book for students who are taking Petroleum/Drilling/Well Engineering courses.

5 comments about Handbook of Petroleum Refining Processes.

1. Handbook of Petroleum Refining PROCESSES. Robert A. Meyers(Editor



2. This handbook provides short (10 pages per process typically) descriptions of widely used chemical processes. The level of detail is appropriate for anyone with a technical backround.



3. I am interested in this particular technology and, naturally wondered if this was the book I was looking for. This book is a hardcover textbook from McGrawHill and contains clear,concise text with the right balance of general knowledge, technical discussion and charts/diarams. From only a knowledge of basic chemistry to advanced degrees in Sciece and Engineering, this book satisfies all! It is impecable in quality and content and,well worth the cost and, was delivered promptly.



4. Of the roughly 30 books I've purchased and studied over the past year on related subjects, this is without question the worst. It is essentially a collection of several hundred extremely elementary articles, mostly written at newspaper level. All give the impression that the corporate patent attorneys were standing over the authors' shoulders to make sure they didn't say anything important. It is a black mark on McGraw-Hill's reputation. The main reason I didn't return it was that some of the articles provide useful references to the patent and professional literature. Of course, there are some useful data scattered throughout the haystacks, particularly for the business managers, but the book takes up far too much valuable shelf space. -F. David Doty, PhD.



5. This book was clearly written by a process engineer not a production engineer. A previous handbook, "Petroleum Processing Handbook," by Bland and Davidson is a perfect contrast to this text. Bland and Davidson wrote about processing details only someone familiar with refinery and oilfield practices would know intimately. None of these details are shared in this handbook.
   
   In contrast, Meyer's handbook covers all the new technology from a developer's point of view. The detail is excellent, complete with tables showing who is using this technology worldwide and what product breaks can be expected from its employment. Meyer's book is useless to anyone new to oil refining but may be useful in the library of an old hand.
   
   If this review was helpful, please add your vote.

5 comments about The New Great Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia.

1. The Central Asia region, symbolically centered on the vast raw material resources in and around the Caspian Sea, was the subject of the "Great Game" struggle of colonial times, during which Russia and England spent generations trying to extend their influence into this mysterious, inaccessible, and often lawless region. In recent years, Central Asia has again been thrown into a battle among far greater powers, due to the international drive for new supplies of fossil fuels and the war against terrorism. The United States has taken England's place in machinations with the Russians, while the emerging regional powers of Iran and China are becoming involved, with everyone trying to extend their political influence in the region and to secure energy supplies. In this book Lutz Kleveman utilizes the historical concept of a "New Great Game" to describe how Central Asia is again looming large in the world's strategic geopolitics (and petropolitics). Kleveman's conceptions of a "New Great Game" are reasonably effective, but this background argument operates only as a rather thin shell around a travel diary and short-term war reporting.
   
   Kleveman definitely traveled to many intriguing and downright dangerous locations while researching the book. He met with opposition leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan, dictators and demagogues in the former Central Asian Soviet Republics (including the bizarre personality cult in Turkmenistan and the shamefully overlooked human rights violators of U.S. ally Uzbekistan), and oil company plutocrats in Azerbaijan and Russia. Kleveman also took very intriguing forays into the not-so-axis-of-evil stability of Iran, and the obscure Uighur lands of Western China. Kleveman's politically-inclined travelogues to these dangerous or inaccessible trouble spots is highly reminiscent of the works of Robert D. Kaplan, though frankly Kaplan is better at it and has a keener eye for geopolitical realities. Overall, Kleveman misses many opportunities for larger informative insights, especially in the way he merely alludes to the true economic goals of the superpowers as they claim to be combating terrorism and stabilizing nations. Kleveman starts with some pretty believable arguments on these matters but fails to really support them with corroborating evidence. This is especially true in the book's problematic epilogue, in which Kleveman finally attempts to deliver the grand geopolitical and economic insights that he had been leading up to throughout his travel reporting, but unfortunately comes across as a rather opinionated second-guesser. [~doomsdayer520~]



2. Reading this book is an easy way to learn about Central Asia through the first-hand impressions of an intrepid journalist. Lutz Kleveman travels through dangerous countries, interviews ministers, ambassadors, and business executives, and also gathers impressions from men and women in the street. The themes of this narrative center on the rich oil and natural gas resources of the region, the prevalence of corruption, bad government, and ethnic tension, and the conflicting strategic interests of the US, Russia, China, and Iran.
   
   The narrative starts on a depressing note. Kleveman visits Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, where he finds that "upscale boutiques and picturesque minarets...cannot mask the strong stench of oil, that never dissipates, day or night." US firms hope to build a pipeline to Turkey, but political instability looms as a risk. The Azeris still seeth over the loss of Karabakh in the mid-90s war with Armenia, and Kleveman finds proud nationalists who advocate war to seize back the region.
   
   Georgia is truly discouraging. Once the most beautiful of Caucasian cites, Tblisi now exudes at best a "moribund charm." The author discovers that "corruption and nepotism have reached catastrophic levels, destroying the country and society at almost every level." Kleveman tours Abkhazia, which he finds heavily garrisoned by Russian soldiers as a potential blocking move against Western-sponsored pipeline projects. The author visits with Chechnyan refugees in Ingushetia and hears nightmarish accounts of violence, chaos, and corruption in Chechnya.
   
   On a more positive note, a side trip to Kashgar in China's Xinjiang province finds that Uighurs (indigenous Muslims) are benefiting from improved living standards in the booming economy, although ethnic tensions with Han Chinese persist. And Kazakhstan seems poised to benefit from the immense Kashagan and Tengiz oil fields, which between them may contain in excess of 50 billion barrels of crude. Kleveman wonders how much of this will trickle down to the people, the majority of whom live in poverty.
   
   In Afghanistan, he finds disenchantment with the US. A tribal soldier tells him, "We Afghans know very well that the Americans did not come here to help us - they are here because they need Afghanistan to get access to the oil and gas at the Caspian Sea." As one might expect, anti-Americanism is rampant in Pakistan's tribal territories. Kleveman interviews a retired Pakistani general, the former US ambassador, and a senior leader of the country's Islamicist party. Surprisingly Kleveman reports pro-Western sentiment in Iran, where he senses that the revolution has discredited fundamental Islam in the people's eyes. But Iranian hopes for a pipeline to the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan run aground against US sanctions, which no oil firm dares break.
   
   Kleveman ends the book with what some will take to be an anti-American diatribe. He argues that "American arrogance of power will not fail to affect relations" with the countries of the region, which now suspect that "the Bush administration [is] using its war against terror in Central Asia to seal the American Cold War victory against Russia, to contain Chinese influence, and to tighten the noose around Iran." He senses a huge change in perception of the US, which was "admired and loved" in the aftermath of the Cold War, but whose policies are now perceived as "arrogant, aggressive, and outright imperialist." He worries that "the region's impoverished populaces, disgusted with the United States' alliances with their corrupt and despotic rulers, [will] increasingly embrace militant Islam and virulent anti-Americanism."
   
   Whether the reader agrees with Kleveman's conclusions or not, one has to respect his fieldwork. For those interested in this poorly understood but strategically important region of the world, the book provides useful data and impressions.



3. In the past Great Game, canny potentates, shahs and princes played Tsarist Russia and Imperial Britain one off the other through a series of proxy wars, treaties, and backdoor politicking that went on well into the twentieth century. Now, although the sun has set on the British Raj, the stakes are higher, and Russia and her "federation" continue to wheedle and deal, this time with oil as the prize. New players, namely the US and China, have stepped into the fray, and the Game has escallated into more than just a few stray spies skulking through the Hindu Kush.
   
   Kleveman rightly sees the area of the Stans as being the new center of the world. He takes us through areas previously behind the Stalinist iron curtain--and fast becomming the Islamist curtain--to storied "countries", their people and leaders, and the iron grip that the past still imposes on the present. It's thrilling reading, and sobering, too. If politics and economics move too fast to make this book current in ten years, it will still maintain its place as one the best overviews of the central Asian geopolitical scene available to the lay reader in English.



4. Lutz Kleveman's book "The New Great Game" explores the exciting world of money, oil, war, and political intrigue that is modern Central Asia. The title is a reference to the grandiose chess-like struggle between Russia and Britain for control over Central Asia in the 19th century, where possession of bountiful, empire-making India was at stake. In that time period, rogues and renegades, politicians and emmisaries, viceroys and emirs all charted out an extravagant drama that contributed immeasurably to the course of history. Kleveman argues "The Great Game" is far from over: there are new players and new stakes in the New Great Game of the 21st century.
   
   Interviewing everyone from oilmen to military commanders to revolutionary leaders to madrassa students, Klevemen unravels a huge, complex net of motivations and intents that underlie the beehive of political and military activity that buzzes over Central Asia. It effectively digs beneath the veneer that is presented to us by the media which obscures the happenings of the region: true, there is a war on terror in the area, true, Muslim fundamentalism is a factor there. However, the everyday layman usually knows very little beyond this sensationalistic coverage from news outlets, and this does little justice to activity in Central Asia which may, as with the original Great Game, seriously determine the course of history. Looking back in time, we acknowledge soberly that economic factors have been one of the most enduring, reliable, and strong influences in determining historical events. The quest for tea, spices, and opium drove colonialization. Industrialization marks one of the most jarring technological shifts to have ever occured to mankind. Today, current events often is discussed in the language of globalization. However, it is very easy to forget that economics remains the preeminent determinant and that current events often have economic motivations that loom over ideological ones. Kleveman's book is superb in that it brings us back to this vital understanding.
   
   New Great Game players like Iran, China, Russia, and the United States are poised to stake their claims on the world's last fronteir in oil reserves in Central Asia, and geopoltically, Central Asia is where the these powers' spheres of influence converge. A cultured awareness of the political, military, and economic undertakings that are being carried out in this area right now, and an understanding of the historical consequences of these events will make a person a more informed global citizen. Kleveman's "The New Great Game" is an excellent place to start in seeking this awareness.



5. Not being an expert on central Asia or U.S. oil policy, I can't comment on whether the author has all his facts straight. But he makes an excellent case that the U.S. may well be headed for deep kimchi in Asia and the Middle East with hubristic actions and attitudes. And I disagree that the average person will get as much from the newspaper as in this book. Kleveland provides a comprehensive overview of the what key people in the region are thinking about U.S. oil policy there, with lucid insight about oil politics in Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and other nations with a stake in Caspian sea oil. Since the author writes about his personal experiences as he visits key politicians, war lords and power brokers in many of these countries, the reader gets a bird's eye view of what may "really" be going on in the minds of leaders there. This perspective is unique, and one gets the sense that the truth is being told. It's not something you hear on the nightly news, and it's not pretty. The writing is exceptional - the book is hard to put down.

2 comments about Deepwater Petroleum Exploration & Production: A Nontechnical Guide.

1. This is a good place to start if you're looking for a very general introduction to deepwater exploration and production (E&P). Almost nothing gets a lot of detail, but almost nothing is omitted. The chapters cover the following topics:

   1 - history of offshore drilling
   2 - the move into deeper and deeper water in the eighties
   3 - exploration
   4 - drilling and completion
   5 - development systems
   6 - fixed structures -- compliant towers, concrete, etc.
   7 - floating systems -- TLPs, FPSOs, spars, and so on
   8 - subsea systems
   9 - topsides
   10 - piplines, flowlines, and risers
   11 - technology and the future

   The writing is sound, and there are plenty of decent graphics -- pictures of the gigantic Bullwinkle platform; photographs and schematics of equipment and layouts; and a couple of colour plates showing seismic analysis displays. The chapters are really just overviews -- although there's a fair amount of detail in some areas, particularly in platform construction and assembly, there is so much to say that they can't do more than scratch the surface.

   The book does give you quite a lot of vocabulary to work with, which is valuable. There are a multitude of online oil and gas glossaries that you might want to search for via the web, but the narrative form that this book provides is a pretty good way to understand them too.

   If you are new to E&P and would like a good overview, this is a pretty good place to start, but it won't take you very far in any one direction.




2. Leffler, Pattarozzi, and Sterling have produced a useful and interesting book about the challenge of drilling for oil at incredible depths beneath the ocean. The book strikes just the right balance, as both a brief overview of the industry and a detailed look at essential concepts of deepwater exploration and production.

   This book begins with a brief history of oil exploration, both onshore and offshore. Throughout, the authors provide boxes with interesting facts and background material that help maintain the reader's interest. Some boxes are stories of innovations in the field (such as John Chance's invention of a system to "decode" the jittered government GPS data) whlie other boxes explain some of the unfamiliar terms of the oilfield world, like use of "Christmas Tree" for a certain piece of equipment and the use of unusual names for oilfield leases (such as "Bullwinkle" and "Cognac").

   My only dissatisfaction with the book is the lack of a bibliography to assist the reader in finding more information on certain subjects covered. Also, the index should include more key names and terms. (For example, the name John Chance is not in the index despite the fact that his discovery is mentioned in a supplemental box.) I like any book that I read to have an extensive index so that I can quickly return to interesting passages.

   The book is a relatively quick read. In just one day I read about one-third of the book (well into Chapter 4). The book assumes that the reader has little technical knowledge (but at least some technical interest) and would be a good introduction to the oilfield terminology and concepts, especially for nontechnical personnel who have to work with the engineers and geologists. (For the record, I am a civil engineer, and I worked a little with the oil industry in the past. My current interest is in the creative aspects of design and innovation.)