5 comments about The Halliburton Agenda: The Politics of Oil and Money.

1. Did I get the wrong book from Amazon.com? The book is advertised to be a book about Cheney and Halliburton - it is about Halliburton but not Cheney. For example, pictures of Cheney appear on both the front and back covers of the book jacket. But that is very misleading. The book is not about Cheney per se; there are in fact only a dozen or so pages dealing with Cheney near the end of the book and he plays only a minor role; he finally appears on page 191 of the 237 added seemingly as an afterthought. Surprisingly, the dominant politician in the book is the former president and Texas native Lyndon Baines Johnson or LBJ. By my estimate and it is confirmed by looking at the index, LBJ takes up three times as much space in the book as Cheney, and furthermore he plays a much more important role in setting any "agenda" at Brown & Root - a subsidiary of Halliburton. Even though the book even if falsely promoted it is still an interesting read about two old US companies and their eventual merger; but at just 237 pages long in medium font is not a 5 star effort, just 3.5 stars, maybe only 3 stars at best.
   
   The first company described is the oil well services company Halliburton started in approximately 1920 by Erle Halliburton in Oklahoma. Erle Halliburton died in 1957 leaving a successful and financially strong and independent business enterprise as his legacy. The second company is Brown & Root (B & R) that developed from being a Texas road construction company that was started around 1917 to become a major defense contractor. The business grew through political connections and after many decades B & R had become the largest engineering and construction company in the USA, boosted by the Vietnam war effort, and fed by a series of domestic and foreign construction and defense contracts stretching around the globe.
   
   The book tells (very briefly) how these companies developed, merged in 1962 with R & B being bought by Halliburton, and how they became a major defense contractor. It also contains many side stories such as the influence of the rising political star LBJ in Texas, dam construction, back room operators such as A.J.Wirtz, political intrigue, the milking of Roosevelt's New Deal money, navy boat building, the fall of Leland Olds who was a bureaucrat blocking their expansion, the Johnson Space Center contract, Vietnam contracts, the LOGCAP contract, the Dresser merger, Henry Waxman's congressional charges against Halliburton and the sole sourcing, etc. Cheney appears near the end of the book and I did learn that Cheney flunked out of Yale and was arrested twice for DWI in his youth. There are a number of insights and comments on the current contracts to Halliburton. But since Halliburton had the LOGCAP contract before Cheney, it seems to me that Cheney played no more a dramatic role - I suspect - than any other good CEO or "rainmaker" might have played at Halliburton to boost its revenues.
   
   As a book I would say it rates just 3 or 4 stars since as the author acknowledges that he uses and number of existing books such as "Erle P. Halliburton: Genius with Cement" and other publications, and most of the book is about the older history - as I said Cheney does not even appear until page 191 out of 237. So even when he appears the information is scant. Having said that it is clear the author has done extensive research, he has a nice reference section for further reading, he brings the story together, but overall it seems like a short collection of historical facts and tidbits. As it stands, it is more of a "gateway" book or introduction and it would have been a 5 star book if it was about 400-500 pages long and was more complete. But some of the references and 40 pages of notes at the back are worth a follow up read.



2. Author Dan Briody has written a book that goes beyond pundit finger-pointing over the controversial "no-bid" contracts relationship between Halliburton and Vice President Dick Cheney. This is a serious examination of the high-octane blend of profit and politics that fuels the Bush administration's agenda. Briody begins with an extensive history of two Texas companies, Halliburton and Brown & Root (now KBR). He deftly portrays how they made their fortunes despite Great Depression hardships, World War II and political intrigues aplenty. Briody pulls no punches while maintaining a reportorial (if not totally objective) tone, although people who hold different political views might argue with his opinions and conclusions. We recommend this saga to anyone looking for a deeper understanding of the ongoing tryst between corporate America and its politicians. While this book is not presented as a smoking gun, it portrays insider politics that smolder like an oil fire you can't quite extinguish, leaving sort of an ugly haze.



3. I actually enjoyed his book about Carlyle and it's the reason I bought this book. But there should have been another 300 pages. It did a pretty good job of describing the origins of Halliburton and Brown and Root and described the relationship both Brown and Root and later the combined company had with Lyndon Johnson. But it's other political relationships of the time were not fleshed out, and only briefly mentioned. Basically anything about the companies histories after the late 1950s was brief and I felt shortchanged once I got to this part of the book. (3/4 of the way into it) The change of name to Kellog, Brown and Root was not mentioned, nor were contracts such as Guantanomo or the base on Diego Garcia which sounds to me like it could have warranted quite some ink. Also Kellog, Brown and Root's bankruptcy was glossed over leaving me wondering what the story is on this. The asbestos issue was only briefly mentioned, and Cheney's attempts to reduce these losses by changing the laws wasn't mentioned at all. Information about the companies contracts in Iraq is almost non-existant and the reputed contracts the Company did with countries in Cheney's era under US sanctions (ie Iran) by diverting the contracts via it's overseas subsidiaries gets not even a fraction of a page.
   
   Basically if you after information on these companies after 1962 you're better off researching it on the internet.



4. It was a good read. Pretty scary stuff. As far as Chaney goes, the only thing that would have been more of a surprise would have been that he was identified as one of the founding members of the Log Cabin Republicans but for someone who spends so much time at undisclosed locations, stranger things could happen.
   
   Bud Brown



5. Actually, there was nothing particularly shocking. The scandal of Halliburton's involvement in Iraq is pretty obvious, and the author adds no information about that. I would guess the more scandalous aspects will come out in the future. When it is clear that we went to war solely so that Halliburton could have the pipeline work, then I'll be mildly perturbed, but not surprised. There must after all have been some real reason.
   
   If one is looking for dirt on Cheney, there really isn't much. He is completely overshadowed in this book by LBJ, Herman Brown, Alvin Wirtz and others, and actually, Robert Caro's books on LBJ are much more enthralling accounts of all that. Still, it's fun to read about these tough Texas mothers with their whiskey and bags full of hundred dollar bills. In fact, now that I think about it I highly recommend all of Caro's books about LBJ.
   
   Coming back to this one, it kind of fizzles out. Halliburton and Brown & Root have interesting histories. People who naively suppose that modern day public officials are honest and that their words are related to their motives in any way may be alarmed, but I would guess that most people reading this book in the first place aren't expecting a tale gleaming with moral gems. And Cheney as a rogue is a humorless dud. The most surprising thing I learned about him was that he had his first heart attack at 37!

No comments about Petroleum Related Rock Mechanics.

2 comments about Resource Rebels.

1. Following his earlier book "The New Resource Wars", Al Gedicks eloquently presents numerous negative case studies regarding exploitative mining. In this book, I was hoping there would be more direct social science analysis as well. However, there is simply more descriptive and investigative material about pernicious cases of exploitation. Instead, it would have been useful to also consider some cases of corporate resposibility, or cases where Native communities have in fact chosen to go forward with mining and have had positive experiences -- indeed cases of mines such as the Raglan project in Quebec, The Red Dog Mine in Alaska, Argyle in Australia, mining in Botswana and Ghana or oil in Brunei might also have provided an interesting comparison. Nevertheless, the book certainly has some good expository material on some of the "bad boy" companies. It is important to consider that there might also be some better players in the mix -- which the activist perspective in this book does not want to even acknowledge.



2. It takes a lot of strength to pour over the sort of bad news that Gedicks brings us in "Resource Rebels." It's an emotional challenge to witness the ways in which the Indian Wars continue, how few people are aware of this indigenous holocaust, and how hopeless people can feel in the face of its inertia. The inhumanity shown by the executives of these extractive industries and the military and media hit men that serve them - it's all rather sickening.
   The soul that Gedicks exhibits is also evident in these "Resource Rebels" who show tremendous courage to confront these impossible odds.
   There are other important books that look into the attempts to slow the progress of this destructive leviathan the planners of our hi-tech militarist society have created Paradigm Wars: Indigenous Peoples' Resistance to Globalization. The interests of these transnational conglomerates are not human interests. And when the U'Wa in Colombia, the Shuar in Ecuador, the Komoro of West Papua, and the Chippewa of Wisconsin challenge their oppression and the destruction of the earth - they are defending all of humanity and future generations.
   
   In the chapter on "The Military, Trade and Strategies for Sustainability" Gedicks notes how demanding our military is of minerals and oil resources. He cites a study that estimates "that military consumption accounts for 10 to 20% of U.S. mineral consumption." And in opposition to the desires of the general public, we continue to construct newer fleets of fighter planes and aircraft carriers all the time. Budgets are always tight for new libraries, health care, university educations, etc.; but there's always money for the warfare state. Why We Fight
   I've purchased a couple copies of this book, because the author and publishers like "South End" are so deserving of support.

No comments about Fill 'er Up!: The Great American Gas Station.

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.

No comments about Reservoir Geomechanics.

1 comments about Handbook of Petrochemicals Production Processes (Mcgraw-Hill Handbooks).

1. This book promises a wealth of information for the process engineer interested in Petrochemical Processes. While it does contain a certain amount of useful information, useful for example as introductions to undergraduate Chemical Engineering courses on various of the topics covered, the information presented is not particulary in-depth. Some of the latter chapters on polymerization processes read a bit like the technical information you can find on company web sites rather that as chapters... OK, but not great.

No comments about Empires of Oil: Corporate Oil in Barbarian Worlds.

5 comments about The Helldivers' Rodeo: A Deadly, X-Treme, Scuba-Diving, Spearfishing, Adventure Amid the Off Shore Oil Platforms in the Murky Waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

1. This is probably one of the most enjoyable books I have read in the last five years. The author and his cohorts are definitely brave, almost certainly missing a few screws and possibly suicidal, but they enjoy what they are doing so much that after a while the insanity of it all doesn't seem to matter. Stories about divers diving with football helmets so they don't get knocked out on the steel beams of the oil rig and the stalking of sharks (!!) in the opaque murk at the bottom of the sea floor would seem farcical or just stupid coming from almost anyone else, but when Fontova writes it is riveting, believable and also hilarious.
   
   Fontova is often brutally honest about the risks that the rig-divers take. While his writing clearly expresses the enjoyment and thrill of this type of spear fishing, he does not try to glorify it or to imply that it is safe or easy or simple, because it is none of those things.
   
   One of the best things about this book is also one of the most unexpected: it's not just about hunting, it's about everything else too. In between the stories about the dives, Fontova talks about south Louisiana culture, the workings and modification of spear guns, the theory of operation behind scuba gear, the rules for how deep and how long it is considered safe to dive (after which he talks about how the rig divers exceed all limits of safety or even common sense on their dives), the dynamics of the mixing of the Mississippi River water with the Gulf of Mexico water, a brief history of oil rigs, basic fish anatomy and the types and temperament of fish seen around the rigs, why Jacques Cousteau once gave a talk at a local dive shop, a first-person perspective on Che Guevera, and dozens of other things besides.
   
   This is really an excellent book that I have recommended and will continue to recommend to family and friends. The only people who probably won't like it are anti-hunting activists and those that feel Prohibition should never have been repealed. Aside from them, it has something for everyone.



2. Mix one part Rodney the Shark Guy, one part Ted Nugent, and two parts your uncle who always seems to have those tall tales, and you wind up with this wild ride through the spear-fishing haunts of Humberto Fontova.
   
   On the surface, it's about about a bunch of guys who just won't grow up and go deep see fishin' (the hard way) off the oil rigs. And it doesn't really get any deeper than that, but does it need to? (And who knew oil platforms had the ecological side benefit of turning into reefs?)
   
   No grand moralizing, just a couple fun guys and their fish tales. You'll be surprised at how hard it is to put down.



3. Thank you Doug Terry for telling me that triggerfish won't chew my earlobes off! I actually had a nightmare over that one!
   
   As a recreational scuba diver and spearfisherman on Florida's east coast, I found the book a little shy of technical details. For example, what gas mixes did they use, how many of 'em spent time in a decompression chamber, etc. As a quarter-cuban waterman who grew up in Miami and the Florida Keyes, I could relate to many of the scenes in the story.
   
   I was impressed by the writing of Humberto Fontova. It took me back to my youth, and really makes you appreciate the bonds between your buddies. Guys need to get together for some brutal backbreaking, boat pounding, bloody carnage, and beverage-consuming adventure action, every now and then, it's what we do!
   
   The timing of my read, after Hurricane Katrina's devastation, makes you feel for these folks, who truly enjoy life at its best. I wish them all speedy recovery, and hope that all his buddies can find their old sandbar to relax on.....



4. Sad example of how some men are brainwashed into thinking that destroying life somehow proves their manhood. And the larger the physical body they kill, the more admiration/love they feel for themselves. (Fontana actually believes this is how most other people think, and at one point says a big kill is how to get "the best poon-tang". He says the only thing that is changed is how money replaced the animal body. I'm here to say the reality of what is the "best" sex or the "best" man is vastly different for many of us...including those who farm, hunt, and fish.)
   
   I have nothing against hunting and killing when it is done with skill and respect for animals, and done with the intent of providing food--which is the within the natural order of life. Unfortunately, the following typifies Fontova's attitude. "You see a huge cobia or amberjack lumbering by--schlink--Ba-LOOOM!! and the big sucker stops in his tracks. Must be the same rush as shooting an elephant between the eyes from close range--POW!--and watching him collapse like a dynamited building." Seeing the demise of an intelligent, magnificent creature does not give me a rush. Neither does pretending to be in a death battle with fish who do not have our brains or tools, and as a group (marine species particularly), are being depleted much faster than they can restock and survive. The hunters and fishermen/women I admire are heavily into conservation, killing with as little pain as possible, and don't think seeing somebody about get himself killed is something to brag about. This guy couldn't hold a candle to them.
   
   Fontana talks about using various weapons and giving the fish a chance, fighting "mano a mano". Give me a break. They're stupid fish. There is no real contest here, just a brainless desire to find excitement in the chosen possibility of death, dismemberment, and pain. And when not feeling the desire for that kind of excitement, the "rush of strutting around with serious firepower" will do (i.e. just reminding himself who has the greater killing ability can make him happy). Of course, risking the "icy clutch of danger" is further improved by "serious buzzing" and routine drugging of one form or another. I can't imagine who taught this man these are the ways prove himself worthy among "men". If I didn't know better, I'd think he was a teenager--which is how I came across the book--a seventeen year old kid gave it to me to read. I am so glad most "action" writers I've come across have more spiritual, emotional, and global awareness than Fontova and are better role models for youth.
   
   If glorifying death isn't reason enough to skip this book, try Fontova's attitude on what makes a life worth living. He thinks people come down to Louisiana and get mysteriously transformed for the better by having the desire to do nothing but eat, drink, and get laid. Here's his amusing anecdote to sum up that philosphy. "An old Cajun put it a little more bluntly. 'If you can't eat 'em or F--- 'em, they're worthless." I wonder if he ever considers God's opinion or interpretation of creation. There are certainly no signs of that in this book.
   
   I think I'll go back and reread "Wildlife Wars". Funnier, with more variety, and written by an honorable man who chose to do battle and test himself over things that really matter. Check out Terry Grosz and you'll see what I mean.



5. This book changed my life! I grew up in SE LA fishing my whole life, always wondering what was underneath the water, after reading Humberto's book, I decided to try it out. Granted Humberto exagerates some, but that's what makes it such an entertaining read.
   
   I now spearfish the rigs on a regular basis, and it's the most fun I've had since i was a kid. All of the local spearfishing clubs are full of a great bunch of guys as well, including the ones mentioned in the book.
   
   If you have an interest in Louisiana fishing / diving / or spearfishing, you need to read this book.

5 comments about Crude: The Story of Oil.

1. There is tons of great information in this book. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who's attempting to find out more about the oil industry, and its sordid history. I'm guessing that most people fill up their gas tanks each week have no idea of the tortuous path that gasoline takes from the time its pumped from the ground to its eventual transfer to the local gas station.
   
   The negative effects that the oil industry has had on the environment will be felt for perhaps hundreds of years. I, for one, am very glad for the advent of Peak Oil. In fact, the entire world would have been better off had oil never been discovered.
   
   Back to the book, Shah does a good job of covering an immense amount of information and condensing it down to a slim volume. I would have like to have more detail in some areas, but certainly understand the parameters under which she was working.
   
   I highly recommend this book, even to people who are more inclined to view the oil industry favorably.



2. I must say Sonia Shah has done a masterful job of covering the history and geography of oil very succinctly and brilliantly in such a slim volume. This is a good book on oil for those beginners who want to understand the politics and the economics of oil. As Daniel Yergin has said: oil has brought out both the best and the worst of our civilization over almost a century and a half and it has been both boon and burden. This is very well captured by her in her book. Those who want to or need to know something about oil in a hurry should find this book very helpful.



3. Sonia Shah, an Asian-American feminist whose free-lance writing has appeared in leftist publications such as "The Nation", has written an easy-to-read 250-paged book that begins with some earth science followed by a short history of oil, then evolves into a `Green' critique of oil dependency as an energy resource. The parts that cover the history of `black gold' include the preface "For the Love of Oil", introduction "Oil is Born", chapter one "The Eclipse of Coal", chapter two "Exile from Tethys", chapter three "Into the Cold", chapter four "Rockefeller's Ghost", and chapter five "Refining the Hunt". The chapters that critique the oil business and the manner in which oil is consumed are chapter six "Aftershocks", chapter seven "The Curse of Crude", chapter eight "Carbon Perils", chapter nine "Running on Empty", chapter ten "Challengers, Old and New", and a conclusion "Death Throes". These chapters are followed by tables, notes, index, and acknowledgments.
   
   Shah begins her tale noting that oil-rich countries are filled with poor people: "Within a century of drilling the first oil well in 1859 . . . Americans alone gorge on no less than three gallons every day - the average Asian or African receives few of the benefits of the planet's crude" (pviii), despite living on top of vast reserves of oil in places such as Indonesia or Nigeria. Shah explains "The giant Western oil companies don't own access to the majority of the world's oil, which is controlled by governments [Shah neglects to tell us that those governments were installed by CIA] . . . But they make the most money from oil" (pix).
   
   Shah tells us how Middle East oil came to be. About 200 million years ago, [some evangelicals preposterously say 6 or 9,000 years ago], the Earth had a single super-continent called Pangaea. Shah says around 180 million years ago [scientists say 120 million years ago], that the super-continent began to break into two parts as "a warm shallow sea washed just above the equator, splitting the continent that had previously covered the earth into two major subcontinents, Laurasia and Gondwanaland"(pxx). This sea, called the Tethys, produced a sediment over the course of 100 million years that eventually became oil when the Tethys eventually dried up. Shah says "Those sunken sea bottoms of the Tethys now contain about two-thirds of the world's oil"(pxx). Actually, Russia has more oil in hard-to-reach reserves than all the Arab countries put together, which is why the notorious state terrorist Daddy Bush made friends with them back in 1989.
   
   In Chapters one and two, Shah explains how the first World War demonstrated the need for oil to the warring `civilized' countries - "securing access to oil was crucial to maintaining power"(p14). World War II proved the need for oil and the British partnered with the Yanks to maintain global hegemony. America, ruled by oil-rich elites who pulled the government's strings, jumped at the opportunity to provide the brawn to British empire. Shah says "Arrangements were duly made with the British" (p14). Britain kept Iranian oil, the U.S. and U.K. shared Iraqi and Kuwaiti oil, and Sa'udi oil from Arabia would be U.S. oil.
   
   On Middle East conflict, Shah writes "When Britain pulled out of colonial Palestine in 1948, it had handed power over much of the country to the minority [immigrant] Jewish population [the freed victims of Hitler's concentration camps in Germany] (p20). Shah doesn't tell us why Britain had to do this - because of Zionist terrorist attacks in England or that the British government was so infiltrated with Zionists that the Zionists knew of British peacekeeping plans for Palestine before the British troops in Palestine knew of them, and therefore were ineffective at keeping peace. But really, giving Palestine to the Zionists was a deal hatched by Rothschild with the British government long before and was why Ned Lawrence of Arabia was later assassinated. But Shah does recognize that oil politics left the Middle East "mired in dispossession and conflict"(p20). Thus has always been British empire, now American-powered.
   
   In chapter three, Shah shows us that her knowledge of what is happening is largely dependent on reading what others have to say, such as Daniel Yergin and Greenpeace. She writes "The second `oil shock' arrived in 1979 when Islamic fundamentalists overthrew the Shah of Iran" (p31). Shah neglects to inform us that CIA had a back-up plan in the form of Ayatollah Khomeini who was stashed in France until needed. According to Le Monde, Iranians reacted predictably to intentionally leaked CIA reports that CIA was going to reinstall Shah Pahlevi as the Hitlerite dictator of Iran. After hearing this, CIA personnel were taken hostage in Teheran and CIA was told that they would swap the hostages for Shah Pahlevi. Pahlevi, who came to America for medical treatment and whose presence touched off a wave of unreported terrorist attacks against military bases in America by Iranian students, died and Khomeini was then moved into the void in Iran to trick the populace with his false anti-American rhetoric. Khomeini successfully took over and oil continued to flow to Europe and Japan, while his military was covertly supplied by America, his internal enemies massacred by the tens of thousands, his F-4 fighters provided AWAC support against Iraqi MIGs during the Iran-Iraq War, and U.S. surveillance stations were maintained along the Iranian-Soviet border.
   
   Similarly, Shah does not know what really happened in Iraq either. She writes: "In August 1990, the wrath of the Carter Doctrine fell upon Iraq when it attempted to annex neighboring oil-rich Kuwait . . . [and Daddy Bush] responded with deadly force, followed by a regime of sanctions and years of aerial bombings" (p37) Shah doesn't appear to understand that the rulers of Iraq and Iran were both installed by CIA and both maintained by the U.S. government. `War is the health of the State' and explains why war strengthened the dictatorships in these Middle East countries. Kuwait was a problem to the West, funding the reIslamization of Bosnia - Sarejevo was not allowed to host the Winter Olympics to have them turn around and become Islamic (before you know it, they'll stop paying interest because Islam prohibits it, and the Western bankers depend on interest). Saddam was given the U.S. go-ahead to attack Kuwait in retaliation for Kuwait's alleged slant-drilling of Iraqi oil. After Saddam sent his conscripted troops of internal dissidents into Kuwait, the U.S. killed them for Saddam. This solved the problem of growing numbers of internal dissidents since the cessation of war between Iran and Iraq where the dictators had previously killed each other's internal dissidents conscripted into the military. Shah is correct about the 130 consecutive months of U.S. and British bombings after that and all during the Clinton presidency and Bush Junior presidency up to the current invasion and occupation of Iraq. If the sham democracy that the U.K. and U.S. have installed there doesn't take root, Saddam is kept alive and healthy on the sidelines in case his dictatorship is needed again as a last resort.
   
   Shah concludes by warning of the end of oil's story. Here again she shows that some participant observation would help to inform her analysis rather than relying on what wordpushers are churning out - thousands of books are funded by CIA in the name of disinformation, and she should find out for herself what is going on rather than reading their rubbish. What is happening is that the corporations have figured out that oil can be grown from soybeans and other farm products rather than be pumped from finite reserves beneath the earth. So mega-farms owned by corporations are next at the expense of family farms. Grease powered cars, trucks, and tractors are next and the new lords will be "artificial persons" aka `corporations'. The new aristocracy will buy and merge the family farms into vast acreages manned by sharecroppers while the corporate owners and CEOs live as absentee landlords in their plush private compounds - much as we see today after large chunks of India were carved up by the British and made into a British creation called "Pakistan", where vast mega-farms are worked by sharecroppers while the Ox-bridge elites wallow in luxury in Islamabad. Today's American property owner finds himself, once again, as a serf to a feudal "corporate" master who will take their land to grow oil. That is the future of oil.



4. I highly recommend this book to everyone.
   First Ms. Shah's extensive research and cross-referencing is impressive and adds a lot of credibility to the work.
   Second, for someone tackling an issue as polarizing and sensitive as oil, Ms. Shah presents a remarkably cool tone through the book, although I think her opinions are clear. The book does not antagonize anyone, as some activisty books tend to do.
   What I also loved about this book was that it gave comprehensive treatment to the story of oil, focusing not just on the environment, or on geopolitics, or on capitalism, rather addressing each in turn, which made it tremendously educational and multi-dimensional.
   Ultimately I would judge the book by its impact on me. And I can safely say that ever since I read "Crude" I've been looking at the world a little differently - and that for an author is a remarkable achievement.



5. I enjoyed Sonia Shah's book "Crude, The Story of Oil." Is she correct? I don't know, but this is an interesting book and a small book of only 229 pages. It's a quick read. The problem with "peak oil" books is that they are too political and are always trying to blame someone or some political party, and even blame history. How do we know what is true is true? How does Sonia Shah know? I found it and interesting and worth the price if you buy it used. Regards, Keith Renick, Saudi Aramco Oil, Retired