By Daniel Yergin - The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power (12/16/90) Hardcover – December 16, 1990

This is a very well-written and neutral history of the oil and gas industry worldwide, from its beginnings in the U.S. in the 1850s up through the end of the Gulf War in 1991. I read this over perhaps eight months a couple years ago, having had been in the industry for about 18 years. I wish I'd read it when I first started working; I think my appreciation of my particular engineering field and its place in the context of the industry would've been greatly enhanced.The Prize doubles as both an extremely interesting story and a superb reference thanks to a comprehensive index. My only complaint is that the regional maps are generally sub-par and often don't indicate half the points of interest mentioned in the text. This is merely an annoyance though and doesn't detract much from the experience.I don't have much else to add. The Prize is written for the layman, so anyone with even a passing interest in the industry ought to check it out. I'm most of the way through the sequel The Quest, which covers the next twenty years or so of history though in quite a different manner and with generally poorer writing in my opinion. The Prize is a must buy!

This one book has helped me view current events from a much more sophisticated perspective than before. Although oil is the connective tissue throughout, I learned immensely about World history, human psychology, war, the Middle East, imperialism, colonialism, and so many thing in between (e.g., 42 Gallons in a barrel of crude!). Without a hint of exageration, I learned more from this book than any other I can recall (less The Bible, and maybe The Brothers Karamazov which I just started reading!). It took me ONE YEAR to get it read (not sure why), but I committed to finishing it before starting any other read, and that I did. I am immensely thankful to the author for putting this massive piece together - truly a feat, if you ask me. What will come once this infamous resource evolves (or comes to an end)? A couple of centuries and so much.... everything. Phenomenal read, highly recommended!!!

This is the definitive book on the "Age of Oil" and its journey from fruition to modern day. Incredibly well researched and insightful. The Prize describes how this once seemingly useless substance served as a platform for building global economies and increasing human productivity. Oil; money; power ... the terms are synonymous. Rockefeller, Getty, Rothschild, and others became the wealthiest to have ever lived at the time. You must read this book to understand the true nature of oil's impact on our society."""1853: George Bissel visits oil springs in western Pennsylvania.1859: "Colonel" Drake drills first well at Titusville.1861-65: American Civil War.1870: John D. Rockefeller forms Standard Oil Company.1872: South Improvement Company stirs war in the Oil Regions. Rockefeller launches "Our Plan".1873: Baku oil opened to development. Nobel family enters Russian oil business.1882: Thomas Edison demonstrates elec­tricity. Standard Oil Trust formed.1885: Rothschilds enter Russian oil busi­ness. Royal Dutch discovers oil in Suma­tra.1892: Marcus Samuel sends the Murex through the Suez Canal; begin­ning of Shell.1896: Henry Ford builds his first car.1901: William Knox D'Arcy acquires a concession in Persia. Gusher at Spindletop in Texas; be­ginning of Sun, Texaco, Gulf.1902-04: Ida Tarbell's History of Standard Oil Company serialized in McClure's.1903: Wright Brothers' first flight.1904-05: Japan defeats Russia.1905: Revolution of 1905 in Russia; Baku oil fields ablaze. Glenn Pool discovered in Okla­homa.1907: Shell and Royal Dutch combined under Henri Deterding. First drive-in gasoline station opens in St. Louis.1908: Discovery of oil in Persia; leads to Anglo-Persian (later British Pe­troleum).1910: "Golden Lane" discovered in Mex­ico.1911: Agadir Crisis. Churchill becomes First Lord of Admiralty. U.S. Supreme Court orders dissolu­tion of Standard Oil Trust.1913: Burton "cracking" process for refin­ing patented.1914: British government acquires 51 per­cent of Anglo-Persian Oil Com­pany.1914-18: World War I and mechanization of the battlefield.1917: Bolshevik Revolution.1922-28: Negotiation on the Turkish (Iraq) Petroleum Company, leading to the "Red Line Agree­ment." 1922: Los Barroso discovery in Vene­zuela.1924: Teapot Dome scandal erupts.1928: World oil glut leads to meeting at Achnacarry Castle and "As-Is" agreement. French petroleum law.1929: Stock market collapse heralds Great Depression.1930: Dad Joiner's discovery in East Texas.1931: Japan invades Manchuria.1932: Discovery of oil in Bahrain.1932-33: Shah Reza Pahlavi cancels the Anglo-Iranian concession; Anglo-Iranian wins it back.1933: Franklin Roosevelt becomes President of the United States. Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. Standard of California wins conces­sion in Saudi Arabia.1934: Gulf and Anglo-Iranian gain joint concession in Kuwait.1935: Mussolini invades Ethiopia; League of Nations fails to impose oil embargo.1936: Hitler remilitarizes Rhineland and begins preparations for war, in­cluding a major synthetic fuels program.1937: Japan begins war in China.1938: Oil discovered in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Mexico nationalizes foreign oil com­panies.1939: World War II begins with German invasion of Poland.1940: Germany overruns Western Europe. United States puts limits on gasoline exports to Japan.1941: Germany invades Soviet Union (June). Japanese takeover of Southern In­dochina leads United States, Britain and Netherlands to em­bargo oil to Japan (July). Japan attacks Pearl Harbor (December).1942: Battle of Midway (July). Battle of El Alamein (September). Battle of Stalingrad (begins Novem­ber).1943: The first "fifty-fifty" deal in Vene­zuela. Allies win Battle of the Atlantic.1944: Normandy landing (June). Patton runs out of gas (August). Battle of Leyte Gulf, Philippines (October).1945: World War II ends with defeat of Germany and Japan.1947: Marshall Plan for Western Europe. Construction begins on Tapline for Saudi oil.1948: Standard of New Jersey (Exxon) and Socony-Vacuum (Mobil) join Standard of California (Chevron) and Texaco in Ar­amco. Israel declares independence.1948-49: Neutral Zone concessions to Amin­oil and J. Paul Getty.1950: Fifty-fifty deal between Aramco and Saudi Arabia.1951: Mossadegh nationalizes AngloIranian in Iran (first postwar oil crisis). New Jersey Turnpike opens. 1951~53 Korean War.1952: First Holiday Inn opens.1953: Mossadegh falls; Shah returns.1954: Iranian Consortium established.1955: Soviet oil export campaign begins. First McDonald's opens in suburban Chicago.1956: Suez Crisis (second postwar oil cri­sis). Oil discovered in Algeria and Ni­geria.1957: European Economic Community es­tablished. Enrico Mattei's deal with the Shah. Japan's Arabian Oil Company wins Neutral Zone offshore conces­sion.1958: Iraqi revolution.1959: Eisenhower imposes import quotas. Arab Petroleum Congress in Cairo. Groningen natural gas field dis­covered in Netherlands. Zelten field discovered in Libya.1960: OPEC founded in Baghdad.1961: Iraqi attempt to swallow Kuwait frustrated by British troops.1965: Vietnam War buildup.1967: Six Day War; Suez Canal closed (third postwar oil crisis).1968: Oil discovered on Alaska's North Slope. Ba'thists seize power in Iraq1969: Qaddafi seizes power in Libya. Oil discovered in the North Sea. Santa Barbara oil spill.1970: Libya "squeezes" oil companies. Earth Day.1971: Tehran Agreement. Shah's Persepolis celebration. Britain withdraws military force from Gulf.1972: Club of Rome study.1973: Yom Kippur War; Arab Oil em­bargo (fourth postwar oil cri­sis). Oil price rises from $2.90 per barrel (September) to $11.65 (Decem­ber). Alaskan pipeline approved. Watergate scandal widens.1974: Arab Embargo ends. Nixon resigns. International Energy Agency (IEA) founded.1975: Automobile fuel efficiency standards established in the United States. First oil comes ashore from North Sea. South Vietnam falls to communists. Saudi, Kuwaiti, and Venezuelan concessions come to an end.1977: North Slope Alaskan oil comes to market. Buildup of Mexican production. Anwar Sadat goes to Israel.1978: Anti-Shah demonstrations, strikes by oil workers in Iran.1979: Shah goes into exile; Ayatollah Khomeini takes power. Three Mile Island nuclear plant ac­cident. Iran takes hostages at U. S. Em­bassy.1979-81: Panic sends oil from $13 to $34 a barrel (fifth postwar oil crisis).1980: Iraq launches war against Iran.1982: OPEC's first quotas.1983: OPEC cuts price to $29. Nymex launches the crude oil fu­tures contract.1985: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of Soviet Union.1986: Oil price collapse. Chernobyl nuclear accident in USSR.1988: Ceasefire in Iran-Iraq War.1989: Exxon Valdez tanker accident off Alaska. Berlin Wall falls; communism col­lapses in Eastern Europe.1990: Iraq invades Kuwait. UN imposes embargo on Iraq; mul­tinational force dispatched to Middle East (sixth postwar oil crisis)."""

This is the third copy of this book that I have purchased. The first two are on my shelf, and the third I gave away at a white elephant gift exchange.I originally found out about this book through an Energy Economics course I was taking during my undergrad at Michigan Technological University. The course was a hybrid undergraduate/graduate course, and one of the differentiators was that the graduate students had to read The Prize and write a paper on it.This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the oil industry, its history, its geopolitics, and how oil has shaped policy and war for the past 100+ years.

If you want to know oil's history and story, and why it remains a dominant feature of humans' existence for the last 100 years, this is the book for you. Along with oil's story, you will learn the how and why driver of many of the historical events of the last 100 years.Given this book's scholarship, the writing is clear and will likely hold your interest as you become educated about the dominant player in the ubiquitous Energy Industry.

This is basically a history of the use of oil from its earliest mass production days in the mid 1800's up to today. This could be a dry topic but is written mainly as a series of narratives about the characters in the search of, production of, and control of the resource. The character driven approach makes this a surprisingly easy read for a fairly long book.It focuses on the effects of oil on the economies of both consuming and producing nations as well how access to oil affects the political power of nations. It makes clear how this access to the energy source affected all nations and was a huge driver in transforming the global economy.Highly recommended.