Black Gold and Egos - Best books on Oil

What is better than a good book on the people behind the oil industry, the machinations of the great & good of the black gold extraction industry? With the enormous influence on the economy, environment, jobs, technology and progress the oil industry is not short on stories for by the campfire/fire place. Some old stories, some big characters and some controversy. Five books to entertain and challenge.

Here are the 5 best books on oil and all that.

 Number 1 - The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters (Gregory Zuckerman)

Probably my favorite book on the oil industry. The inside story of how some people made a big bet on new ways of getting stuff done. Some of them made big money, some didn’t. Whatever your views are on fracking this is a story of the people behind it, their thinking, the efforts involved, the egos. Amazing stuff. It’s not a thin read and got me through a very long flight almost without a break.

 Number 2 - The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power (Daniel Yergin)

Still one of the very best books written on the oil industry and the history of how oil became the world’s number one economic power source. You cannot really work in the oil industry and not have read this book. Some parts of it have been criticized but overall the story holds up and this is the book to gift to someone who is wondering what this oil thing is all about.

Number 3- The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes (Bryan Burrough)

Known in their day as the Big Four, Roy Cullen, H. L. Hunt, Clint Murchison, and Sid Richardson were all from modest backgrounds, and all became patriarchs of the wealthiest oil families in Texas. This book is full of big characters, risk takers and the men who won it all (and sometimes lost it all again). The Texas oilfield in the early days. There’s a great, great movie waiting to be made out of this one. To say this book is entertaining is the understatement of the year.

 Number 4 – Twilight in the desert (Matt Simmons)

Okay, so “peak oil” has been replaced with “peak oil demand”. New technologies have made oil production more efficient and oil prices are lower, not higher these days. However, Simmons’ book is still worth reading even if some of his predictions and theories now look off. If anything his theory of an oil plateau is looking more credible these days. He predicted a long period of oil prices and production fluctuating around a plateau as investment in new wells goes up and down with oil prices. Well worth a read.

 Number 5 – The Discovery of Global warming (Spencer Weart)

This is the book you should read on global warming if you have any interest in the subject at all. An excellent story of how scientists very slowly started to figure out something may be happening. Pick it up with an open mind. This is the elephant in the room and one way or another this issue will impact the oil industry in the years to come. A great introduction to the subject and more than anything the best story I have read on how tough the climate is to study when you have limited and imperfect historical data to go on.